The new computer worm, named Kama Sutra, is scheduled to attack infected systems Friday, 3 February. The worm, also known as Blackworm, Nyxem-D and W32.blackmail.e, is aimed at Windows-based computers and spreads by copying itself to shared network locations and mass emailing itself to email addresses on these systems.
Though potentially quite damaging to a system, large scale infection of the worm is not expected and the current over-reaction by many members of the anti-virus community is unwarranted, according to anti-virus company BitDefender.
The Kama Sutra worm is designed to overwrite all .doc, .xls, .mdb, .mde, .ppt, .pps, .zip,.rar, .pdf, .psd, and .dmp files. It has gained the attention of the anti-virus community because of its ability to deceive Windows through phony digital signatures, and seems to have been created for the sole purpose of doing damage and not for commercial gain. It has also gained attention in both the general and technology press due to a unique Website that supposedly shows a running counter of infected computers, as well as its reliance on sexually suggestive emails which spread the virus.
Within the past week, a great deal of media attention has been given to the danger of this worm. While there is a potential of damage if a computer is infected, BitDefender, one of the first companies to offer a free tool for detecting and cleansing the virus from systems, believes that the worm is not as dangerous or widespread as has been reported and can easily be blocked with up-to-date anti-virus software.