Think Twice Before Clicking On Holiday E-mails, Computer Expert Warns

Birmingham, AL (AHN) - The newest round of computer malware has come out, and e-mails pertaining to the New Year are being used to spread the virus.

"Clicking on Web links in e-mail messages is a dangerous practice, which could give your identity, or in this case, your computer, to the criminals," Gary Warner, director of Research in Computer Forensics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and a Federal Bureau of Investigation consultant, warned in a statement released Wednesday afternoon.

The world's largest "botnet", or collection of personal computers controlled by hackers, was created last year. Called "the Storm Botnet," it infected more than 3 million computers, Warner says.

PCs are infected when users click on e-mails that were often associated with holidays, including Valentine's Day, Labor Day, Fourth of July and the like.

Over the Christmas holiday, the creators of the "Storm Worm" sent e-mails with dozens of Christmas and New Year's-related greeting messages.

A computer that clicks on the link in the e-mail message will be attacked by malware, which tries to join the computer to the criminal's Botnet, UAB warned in a statement.

Once joined, the computer begins sending spam messages for the criminals, and may be used in other types of cybercrimes.