Feb 1, 2006, 18:03 GMT
San Francisco - Internet security experts on Wednesday urged computer users to update their anti-virus software before a new worm nicknamed Kama Sutra unleashes its payload on Friday.
The computer worm, also known as Nyxem-D and MyWife.E, attaches itself to e-mails and tries to trick users into opening it by telling them it contains pornographic images.
The worm is thought to have infected as many as 500,000 computers, mostly in India, Peru, Turkey and Italy according to Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer for security company F-Secure Corp.
The worm is programmed to activate on the third day of every month. It can freeze the mouse and keyboard on a recipient's computer and overwrite files on the hard drive to make the inaccessible. Users who have not inoculated their computers with updated anti-virus programmes could lose all information stored in '.doc', '.pdf', and '.zip' files.
Microsoft issued an advisory Tuesday warning customers about the worm, which affects most versions of its Windows operating system, but does not attack computers running other operating systems such as Apple Macs.
Your Talkback on this Story