The second wave of the Kama Sutra virus has failed to
seduce as many users as first feared.
The virus, which first appeared last month, went to the top of
the security threat lists last month, and more damage was expected
in past few days as Kama Sutra was programmed to try and spread
itself on the third of every month.
Machines become infected when a user succumbs to Kama Sutra’s
promise of pornographic images contained in an e-mail
attachment.
Kama Sutra replicates itself by sending itself via an infected
user’s e-mail address book, and on the third day of the month it
also tries to overwrite a users’ desktop files with error
messages.
It was estimated that around 300,000 machines had originally
been infected around the world, although internet security software
suppliers say new infection rates are so far low.
MessageLabs says it has seen only about 100 IP addresses in the
UK trying to spread the virus, and only around 1,000 in the US.
The biggest concentrations of infection have been seen in India,
with around 4,000 IP addresses attempting to spread the virus.
Other countries with higher infection rates than in most European
countries include Mexico, Peru and Australia.