The Hindu : Watch out for Valentine's Day viruses

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 14, 2004

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Watch out for Valentine's Day viruses

By Anand Parthasarathy

BANGALORE, FEB. 13. That ``I love you'' e-mail purporting to come from your admirer, may be a malicious computer virus. Anti-virus product companies are reminding PC users, that Valentine's Day — Saturday — is a favourite launching pad for dozens of viruses, which exploit the steep increase in affectionate messages, via Internet email, on that day.

The trend was seen for the first time two years ago when fake e-mails on Valentine's Day took millions of users by surprise and created a severe nuisance. Instant Messaging services such as MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger or ICQ are the favourites of the virus villains. Trend Micro suggests that users double check that the built-in security settings in these services are made active. It is also a good idea to at least temporarily disable file transfer functions.

Regular e-mailers are asked to beware of mails with headings such as ``I love you'' especially those with attachments. A free virus scan of your PC or notebook can also be made at http://housecall.trendmicro.com.

A similar service is offered at: www.symantec.com/securitycheck.

Today — Friday the 13th — was another hackers' favourite and at least six date-specific viruses are known to target the combination of Friday and 13 since 1987, when the ``Friday the Thirteenth'' `slasher' horror films had a cult following.

However, these viruses are classed as low risk, since the last big attack in 1996, says Trend Micro India's Country Manager, Niraj Kaushik.

All good anti-virus products are geared to foil them.

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