MyParty virus leaves nasty hangover

Antivirus firms are warning about a fast spreading mass mailing virus going by the name of MyParty, which appeared in the wild over the weekend.

Suspected to have started in Singapore, reports of the virus are now coming in from all over Europe.

The virus arrives as an email with the subject: 'New photos from my party!' and body text along the lines of: 'My party ... It was absolutely amazing! I have attached my web page with new photos! If you can please make colour prints of my photos. Thanks!'

The message has an attachment designed to appear as a URL (www.myparty.yahoo.com) but this is really a .com file that sends a copy of the worm to everybody in the Windows address book using a built in SMTP engine.

An email is also sent to napster@gala.net, presumably to track its spread. The virus does no damage to a victim's computer.

Donal Casey, of security firm Activis, said: "The MyParty worm is a new direction for virus authors as they are utilising the fact that web addresses can end in .com, also the extension DOS executable command files."

"As this is a new direction for viruses, I would expect to see a rash of viruses using this technique in the short term until users become educated and do not randomly click on web links delivered through email."

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, added: "This worm uses cunning social engineering to spread itself. MyParty dupes users into thinking they'll see exciting snaps of frolicking partygoers.

"Instead of blushing over embarrassing photos, infected users will be red-faced about forwarding malicious code to their friends, colleagues and customers."