You may have heard of the so-called Kama Sutra worm (actually, it goes by a number of different names, but it’s being loosely referred to as “Kama Sutra” because one of the email subject lines it uses includes the words “Kama Sutra pics”).
From Sophos:
The W32/Nyxem-D worm (also known as Email-Worm.Win32.VB.bi or W32.Blackmal.E@mm) can spread via email using a variety of pornographic disguises, in an attempt to disable security software. If launched it tries to disable a number of anti-virus and firewall products, and attempts to harvest other email addresses from the infected computer, in an effort to spread itself further.
Anyway, like any good web “marketing” effort, this worm actually reports back to a server that is keeping track of the number of infections. We did a quick informal check this morning.
At about 12:00 pm EDT, the counter was at 508,728.
At about 12:15 pm EDT, the counter was at 509,532.
804 infections in 15 minutes.
Alex Eckelberry
(Thanks Adam Thomas)