In this instance an e-mail arrives offering information about the spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars), which has killed dozens of people worldwide. Called W32/Coronex the mass-mailing worm will infect the recipient's machine once activated and will e-mail itself to every name in the infected machine's e-mail address book.
The Coronex worm uses a variety of subject lines, message bodies and attachment names to entice users into clicking including "Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome", "SARS Virus" and Hongkong.exe. Hong Kong is believed to be the epicentre of the outbreak.
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos Anti-Virus, said: "The worm has been deliberately coded to exploit the public's genuine concern about Sars, and is just a further demonstration of the ways that virus writers attempt to use psychological trickery to spread their creations.
As ever the advice is to be careful and to practice great caution when dealing with any files received over e-mail.
