E-mails sent across the country Thursday with subjects such as "The Love Train," "You Stay in My Heart" and "Valentine's Day" could have been harmful traps for the computers of those who opened them.
According to the FBI, spam e-mails disguising themselves as holiday e-cards were sent out to expose computers to the Storm Worm virus.
"It's been around for at least a year and a half, but it just keeps going through new iterations to dupe users into infecting themselves," said John Sawyer, UF Information Technology senior security engineer.
The Storm Worm virus infects Windows users with a Storm Worm botnet, which creates a network of tainted machines controlled by a single user, Sawyer said.
Although he could not comment on any incidents when the Storm Worm virus or malware affected students, Sawyer said it probably doesn't happen often because UF's WebMail and most major e-mail services have good spam protection.
The FBI warned people to be cautious of e-mails from unknown senders and not to click on any links from unusual e-mails.
The Valentine's e-mail instructed a recipient to click on a provided link to download an electronic greeting card.
When opened, malicious software, or malware, was downloaded onto the computer.
Sawyer explained that e-mails were generally short and included a Web site link.
When users clicked the link, they were directed to a page with a Valentine's Day image and were asked to save the file as "valentine.exe," he said.
In some cases, simply clicking on the link could help the virus infiltrate a user's computer, Sawyer said. However, most versions still required an individual to download the virus. Despite well-known virus warnings, he said many people still download suspicious links or open e-mails from unknown senders.
"It's an act of social engineering that makes the user think they need to download it or go to the Web page," Sawyer said.
The effects of malware can range from sending e-mails to everyone in the user's address book to tracking the user's keystrokes, which can lead to identity theft, he said.
Most times, virus e-mails are recognized by e-mail programs as spam and end up in junk-mail folders, he said.
Sawyer recommended keeping virus-protection software up to date. If students suspect a computer has been infected, Sawyer said the best thing to do is contact the UF Computing Help Desk for assistance and to get the machine cleaned.
"Doing it from scratch is really about the only surefire to clean your computer," Sawyer said.
