'Kamasutra' hits million systems globally

NEW DELHI: Globally as many as one million computers have become the victims of Kamasutra virus today, said an industry estimate.

Speaking to CyberMedia News, official of an IT company, said that the numbers could be higher than the estimated million systems. “In India, we haven't got the exact number. However, it is estimated that atleast 50,000 systems were affected,” he said.

Kartik Shahani, Sales Director-India, McAfee said that some estimates points out around 80,000 computer systems were affected in India and Russia.

Globally, it is said that the worm has infected over a million computers.

The worm, also known as 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.

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.