A virus writer has sought to capitalise on the high winds which swept across Europe yesterday leaving over 40 people dead.

The Trojan arrives in emails with the header '230 dead as storm batters Europe' and contain a file labelled 'Full Clip.exe', 'Full Story.exe', 'Read More.exe' or 'Video.exe'.

It contains the Small.DAM Trojan which copies itself to the registry file and waits to be activated by the controller.

"Trojan assaults of this scale are an unfortunate and increasingly common event," said Mikko Hyppönen, chief research officer at F-Secure.

"What is significant here is the timely nature of the assault in relation to the European storm. Malware gangs are clearly using every technique and even tragedies like these to gain access to vulnerable machines."

F-Secure has described the spread of the virus as "significant" and is urging computer to update their virus signature files and be on their guard.