Advertiser Staff and News Services
A computer virus pretending to be an electronic photo of teenage tennis star Anna Kournikova overwhelmed e-mail servers throughout Europe and North America yesterday.
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| The face of Anna Kournikova launches an infection. |
The virus also reached Hawai‘i. While many Island organizations were protected with updated anti-virus software, some individual users and small businesses found their machines infected by the virus, which can automatically send copies of itself to everyone on a recipient’s address book. That could be thousands of copies per person for a large organization.
The virus, triggered when users download an e-mail attachment, slowed e-mail systems and forced some companies to shut down their e-mail servers altogether while they cleaned out the rogue program. Security experts said the virus does not permanently damage computers.
In Honolulu, scattered reports of infections trickled in. Internet access provider LavaNet got 10 calls in six hours from afflicted customers, company president Yuka Nagashima said. By and large, however, Hawai‘i appeared better prepared than last year, when the "I Love You" virus ran rampant, at one point forcing Honolulu officials to shut down their e-mail system.
"It seems like the word got out pretty early in Hawai‘i, so we haven’t seen much yet," said Jodi Ito, information security officer at the University of Hawai‘i. Previous attacks led to beefed-up security, Ito said.
The university yesterday had only a few outbreaks — all of which were quickly contained, Ito said.
The virus comes as an attachment named "AnnaKournikova.jpg.vbs" and carries the message "Hi: Check This!" Subject lines have read: "Here you have," "Here you go" or "Here you are" — all followed by a smiley face.
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