Warning over 'crippling' email virus

A crippling timebomb computer virus is set to detonate tomorrow, users are being warned.

The bug, know as BlackWorm, Kama Sutra, Mywife or CME-24, has spread through email attachments promising pornography, with subjects like “Hot Movie” and “Miss Lebanon 2006“.

If an attachment is opened the computer becomes infected, and on the third day of every month it will seek and delete file types on Windows computers including Adobe PDFs, Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents.

It even tries to disable anti-virus software that is out of date.

BlackWorm’s spread is said to be relatively low compared to other viruses.

But worms are generally designed to help spammers and hackers carry out attacks, not to destroy files as this one does, meaning the impact of this one may be more severe.

Computer giant Microsoft has warned customers to make sure they have the latest anti-virus software and that it is turned on.

Users should also check the date on their computer, because if its calendar is wrong files could be destroyed sooner or later than tomorrow.