The Kama Sutra worm, also known as Blackworm, Nyxem, and Blackmal, is a type of malware, or malicious software that infects PCs using the Windows operating system. Discovered January 16, Kama Sutra was designed to destroy common files such as Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents when each computer's calendar hit February 3 and on the 3rd of each following month. The worm arrived via e-mail, enticing computer users with promises of sexy pictures. The subject lines included "School girl fantasies gone bad", "Hot Movie", "Crazy illegal Sex!" and "Kama Sutra pics". But when users clicked on the attachment, they got an infected machine instead of pornography. Even if the e-mail you receive comes from the address of someone you know, don't open it because his/her might be infected.
How it works
The worm spreads through e-mail attachments with enticing links such as "best video clip ever" and "Hot Movie". Clicking on one of these links activates the worm. Once executed, it can corrupt and overwrite the most common Windows file types: .doc, .pdf, .zip, and .xls, among others. This means the data will be changed and will be unrecoverable. The worm also tries to disable antivirus software.
