PC World Business

Experts at SophosLabs, Sophos' global network of virus, spyware and spam analysis centers, have warned users to be wary of unsolicited e-mails claiming to contain obscene pictures and sex movies.

The Nyxem-D worm (also known as Email-Worm.Win32.VB.bi or W32.Blackmal.E@mm) can spread via email using a variety of pornographic disguises, in an attempt to disable security software. If launched it tries to disable a number of anti-virus and firewall products, and attempts to harvest other email addresses from the infected computer, in an effort to spread itself further.

"Companies should educate their users to practice safe computing - that includes never opening unsolicited email attachments and discouraging the sending and receiving of joke files, pornography and screensavers," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "This worm feeds on people's willingness to receive salacious content on their desktop computer, but they could be putting their entire company's data at risk."

Sophos automatically updated customers with protection against the Nyxem-D worm at 16:03 GMT on Jan. 16, 2006.

Sophos recommends companies protect their email with a consolidated solution to thwart the virus and spam threats as well as secure their desktop and servers with automatically updated anti-virus protection.

For details of the various subject lines used in the malicious emails and a full analysis of the Nyxem-D worm visit: http://www.sophos.com/pressoffice/news/articles/2006/01/nyxemd.html.