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Valentine's Day Viruses On The Rise


Weighing loving words against malicious software

If you head to the nearest Hallmark store, odds are you'll see it overflowing with all sorts of Valentine's Day cards - stuff for married people, dating couples, single friends, you name it.  So you might not reject some unexpected Valentine's Day emails.  Careful, though, because some viruses are making the rounds.Valentine's Day Viruses On The Rise

In an email to WebProNews, a Kaspersky Lab spokesperson wrote, "Kaspersky Lab has detected a large-scale, global mass mailing of Valentine's Day spam.  The spam was first identified by Kaspersky Lab on the morning of February 12, and as of the morning of February 13, the number of spam messages of this type have still not decreased.  The message currently accounts for about 5% of all mail traffic checked by Kaspersky Hosted Security Services."

The problem is pretty big, in other words, and going into the 14th, is only likely to become worse.

We don't have any special malware-beating tips to share; just try to be a little more careful than usual.  That special someone isn't going to love it if you turn your computer into a big doorstop.

Yet we'll add one last word of caution leaning in the other direction.  Avoiding viruses is good, but if you accidentally ignore a Valentine's Day message from your wife, smart money says February will seem even longer and colder than usual.

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About the author:
Doug is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest eBusiness news.

Comments

Love is a virus

I got one valentines day virus in my Gmail mailbox today while i was checking it, and i found a suspicious url link... so i started doing some analsys .. check it out here http://extremesecurity.blogspot.com/2008/02/happy-valentines-day.html

vague

Your article is a bit vague. Does the email contain a document or executable file? Is there a common subject line? Also you didn't mention which operating systems are affected.

Some specifics

The Kaspersky spokesperson wrote, "The text of the message asks recipients to click on a link to view a selection of Valentine’s Day ‘e-cards’. However, clicking on the link simultaneously downloads the malicious file Packed.Win32.Tibs.ic." There's bound to be more than one type out there, though, so a sort of "general alert" isn't a bad idea.

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