Kournikova at centre of latest computer virus

By NAOMI LARKIN

A global virus that raced through the country yesterday proved to be more of a nuisance than a destroyer.

Like the Love Bug virus that last year caused millions of dollars of damage around the world, the new virus relies on people's curiosity for transmission - it arrives pretending to be an image of pin-up tennis star Anna Kournikova.

On opening the e-mail, the virus is automatically forwarded to everyone in that person's address books, global and local, thereby clogging the e-mail system.

However, most companies the Herald spoke to said the virus had not crippled their systems but had proven to be a nuisance, requiring computer specialists to spend time deleting it and installing or updating anti-virus software.

Xtra spokeswoman Mary Parker said the virus started filtering through e-mails at 8 am yesterday. By 10 am it had caught 5000.

It was spreading at a rate of 1.5 e-mails a second, slightly slower than the Love Bug and Melissa viruses.

The new virus appeared to be affecting only users of Microsoft Outlook Express, she said.

The new virus does not seem to erase personal files but could cost millions of dollars worldwide through lost productivity by clogging e-mail systems.

The e-mail, which has the subject line "Here you have, ;o)" with the body headed "Hi: Check this" and an attachment called "Anna Kournikova.jpg.vbs," is believed to have started in the Netherlands before spreading through Europe and America.

Steve Gottwals, director of product marketing for Finland-based F-Secure Corp, said the virus formula was not new but its success lay in getting people to open it.

"It's an old virus concept but you put a pretty face and a nice pair of legs on it and people open it."

Moscow-born Kournikova, 19, is the world's ninth-ranked female tennis player, whose off-court profile was stoked by last year's provocative photo spread in Sports Illustrated magazine.

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