'Merry Christmas' - with a virus

Some UK small businesses received emailed Christmas greetings this week, but many of these innocent looking seasonal messages disguised the latest computer virus attack.

UK managed Internet and email security specialists, intY, reported the first instances of the Zaffi D worm within hours of other anti-virus companies warning of the worm affecting Internet users outside of the UK. Over 20,000 attacks were blocked by intY's MailDefender service from noon on 14th December 2004.

The worm appears to be a Christmas email from a customer or supplier. In fact, it is a piece of software which loads itself onto the recipient's system and could be activated at a later date to cause disruption or other forms of damage.

Mark Herbert, CEO, intY said: "It's sad that virus writers are exploiting the festive season in this way. Even if Zaffi is mischievous rather than malign, this kind of attack wastes the precious time of IT managers so it pays to not drop your guard. A combination of educating users to be wary and accurate anti-virus scanning services will mean a festive season without headaches - or at least those caused by viruses and spam."

Internet users need to look out for messages with the title "Happy Hollydays" and the "Merry Christmas" subject line.