Naked Wife Virus Strips Down Computers.

March 6, 2001 11:48 PM

Naked Wife Virus Strips Down Computers. The virus arrives as an e-mail titled "Fw: Naked Wife" with a message body that reads: "My wife never look like that! ;-) Best Regards, (sender's name here)" and an attachment called "NakedWife.exe."
posted by Firda (19 comments total)

I for one welcome this virus.

Thanks to last month's Anna K. worm, I received multiple email messages alerting me to which of our employees are stupid.

Now, after everyone getting an education on the dangers of opening attachments, I get to find out which of them are really stupid.

Bring on the nekked wives club!
posted by darren at 5:32 AM on March 7, 2001

Beware of any body message with inocrrect grammar! Such as the ones I send.
posted by Postroad at 5:44 AM on March 7, 2001

Just one more reason to use elm. But then again, elm users typically wouldn't be so easily fooled into opening stupid email.
posted by jdiaz at 6:25 AM on March 7, 2001

That, for me, darren, is the worst part of the company-wide virus experience. It just makes me sad that people are so thick. After I get my 30th copy of the Anna K. virus from the same user I just want to stand up in my cubicle and scream across the room "There's no fucking picture, asshole. Stop clicking it!"
posted by jpoulos at 6:34 AM on March 7, 2001

I have to admit something to everyone...I opened the Anna k virus. God, I felt like a dumbass. I don't even like Anna Kornikova.
posted by Doug at 6:41 AM on March 7, 2001

This was my favorite industry comment about the virus, from CNN's coverage:

'"This isn't a particularly new or innovative virus. It uses social engineering, promising visual gifts that appeal to baser instincts," said Susan Orbuch, spokeswoman for Trend Micro.'

Thanks for the explanation of how dirty pictures work, Susan. It clears up a lot.
posted by BT at 6:58 AM on March 7, 2001

It's fun being a sysadmin when these things come out. Since we've got filtering of certain attachments on our mail server, my boss and I are the only ones who know which of our employees are perverts. And we make fun of them.

(not)
posted by pnevares at 7:56 AM on March 7, 2001

How old does the average child have to be before he or she learns not to take candy from strangers?
posted by harmful at 8:02 AM on March 7, 2001

Um, 57?
posted by Jeremy at 8:41 AM on March 7, 2001

You have candy???
posted by CrazyUncleJoe at 9:17 AM on March 7, 2001

Oh, the lovely care-free life of someone who doesn't use a massive security hole masquerading as an operating system.
posted by Mars Saxman at 11:12 AM on March 7, 2001

Ah, the care-free life of someone who doesn't have a massive inferiority complex masquerading as OS snobbery.



Sorry. Someone had to say it.
posted by mikewas at 11:40 AM on March 7, 2001

Ah, the carefree life of someone who knows better than to download suspicious files, especially ones ending in .exe (or .vbs)
posted by dagnyscott at 12:04 PM on March 7, 2001

Heh--when the ILOVEYOU virus was making its rounds, it hit my Inbox from a gal up on the next floor who is just drop-dead hubba, and whom I had barely ever spoken with. I stared at it a minute, thinking, "Woo! Jackpot!" Then I came to my senses and deleted it. I was vindicated minutes later, when other messages began to pour in from all over the department, 50ish men and women alike all seeming to pledge their love for me.

So then our programmer folk simply put a filter on all incoming emails that peels off any .vbs or .exe attachments (plus a bunch of others).
posted by Skot at 12:23 PM on March 7, 2001

Hah, mikewas. My OS can beat up your OS any day, with one hand tied behind its back, a bag over its head, and a case of measles. Beat THAT!

:-)
posted by Mars Saxman at 12:48 PM on March 7, 2001

Ah, the lovely care-free life of someone who doesn't blindly open any old email attachment he gets. (So I wrote that joke before I saw all the responses... I'm slow. Sue me.) I use Windows 2000 and Outlook at work and at home and I've never had any virus trouble (other than the deluge of email I get whenever a virus like this is going around the university). The problem is the user--more specifically, user training, or lack thereof--not the OS. Perhaps Outlook makes it "too easy" to open attached executable files, but how is the ability to run an executable file a security hole? If it is, then every OS has this hole, and I would want them to.
posted by daveadams at 12:55 PM on March 7, 2001

As far as "Social Engineering" goes, if you send your average cubicle monkey a file named "This file is a virus, do not open it.exe", I can fairly guarantee that the file will be opened immediately.
posted by Optamystic at 1:58 PM on March 7, 2001

Well, hey, it might be a nekkid lady. Ya never know unless ya open it!
posted by elf_baby at 2:03 PM on March 7, 2001

The part I love about this virus is the unsettling effect it has on all the people working at their PCs. Information Technology sends out a message stating "Don't open message with Naked Wife." The real engineering occurs when some poor guy does open it knowing full and well what the porn policy is....trying to explain how it happened accidently. Genius! Although, if I was to make a virus, it's name and intent would be so obscene that people wouldn't want to talk about it (making it much more successful)
posted by samsara at 7:33 AM on March 8, 2001