Anna Kournikova Virus
Anna Kournikova Virus Definition
The Anna Kournikova virus was a piece of malware that infected millions of computers worldwide in February 2001. It spread through malicious email attachments disguised as a picture of Russian tennis player Anna Kournikova, who was popular in the late ‘90s and early 2000s. The virus also appeared under the names like VBS.OnTheFly, VBS/SST, and VBS_Kalamar. Today, it’s no longer a threat because most modern antivirus programs can easily detect and block it.
How the Anna Kournikova Virus Worked
The virus spread through email, using one of three subject lines: “Here you have ;0),” “Here you go ;0),” or “Here you are ;0).” The message read “Hi: Check This!” and included an attachment called “AnnaKournikova.jpg.vbs.,” which was a script file disguised as an image.
The virus worked like a computer worm. Once opened in Microsoft Outlook, it automatically emailed copies of itself to every contact in the target’s address book. Unlike the similar ILOVEYOU worm, it didn’t delete or corrupt computer data. Instead, it caused widespread disruption by flooding email servers with outgoing messages and wasting bandwidth.
The Person Behind the Anna Kournikova Virus
The virus was written by a 20-year-old Dutch programmer called Jan de Wit, who used the alias “OnTheFly.” He reportedly created it in just a few hours using a worm-building toolkit developed by an Argentinian programmer known as “[K]Alamar.”
De Wit released the worm on a newsgroup and publicly confessed two days later. According to the reports, he contacted the police after talking with his parents, and outside cooperation also helped identify him. He was convicted of spreading data with the intent to damage computer networks and received a sentence of 150 hours of community service. His legal appeal was later rejected.
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FAQ
The 2001 Anna Kournikova virus was malicious code that spread through email attachments claiming to contain a picture of the Russian tennis player. Once open, it auto-sent itself to other contacts in the victim’s address book and clogged email servers.
The virus was created by Jan de Wit, a 20-year-old programmer from the Netherlands. He allegedly wrote it in a few hours using a free worm-creation toolkit. De Wit eventually turned himself in and was sentenced to 150 hours of community service.
No, the virus didn’t delete or corrupt computer data. However, it overwhelmed email servers and company networks due to the mass-mailing of infected messages. The malware’s endless replication also wasted bandwidth and storage.
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