The Anna Kournikova VBS.SST computer virus, informally known as “Anna”, is a viral worm that was authorized by a 20-year old Dutch programmer Jan De Wit on February 11, 2001. The virus was created using a simple and widely available Visual Basic Worm Generator program developed by an Argentinean programmer called “Kalamar”. It was designed to infect the Windows Systems when a user unwittingly opens an e-mail message purportedly containing an attachment that appears to be a graphic image of Russian tennis star Anna Kournikova, while actually hiding a malicious program. However, when the file is opened, a clandestine code extension enables the worm to copy itself to the Windows directory and then send a file to all the people or addresses listed in Microsoft Outlook e-mail address book. The virus arrives as e-mail with the following subject, message, and attachment.

Subject: Here you have, ;o)

Message body: Hi: Check This!

Attachment: AnnaKournikova.jpg.vbs

        

     The virus does not affect MacOs, Linux and Unix Systems, and if Windows Scripting Host is installed. It was classified as worm because of virus’ ability to mail itself out to a large number of Internet users. The worm was released onto the Internet in e-mail servers as a precaution. The Anna Kournikova virus did not corrupt data on the infected computer. Apparently, the author created the virus in a matter of hours. It was believed that the virus proliferated fast and in just 5 hours of its release, about 2900 replicas of the worm became detectable in 290 individual Web-domains. Kournikova caused a great deal of inconvenience and irritation but its effects were much milder than the other reported virus.

      By the time De Wit understood what the virus did; he had conferred with his parents and decided to go to the police.  He turned himself in to the police in his hometown Sneek at Netherlands on February 14, 2001, a few days after the virus was released. Lawyers for Jan De Wit have called for the dismissal of charges against him, arguing that the worm caused minimal damage. The FBI submitted evidence to the Dutch court, suggesting that $166,000 in damages was caused by the worm, based on the reports of damage from 55 firms. Prosecutor called for a sentence of 240 hours community service at the beginning of the trial that De Wit spread data into a computer network with the intension of causing damage. The charges carry a maximum sentence of four years in prison and a fine of 100,000 guilders ($41,300). De Wit admitted he created the worm using a virus creation toolkit but told the court when he posted the virus to a newsgroup he did it “without thinking and without overseeing the consequences”. He denied any intent to cause damage. The Anna Kournikova virus caused nothing like the damage caused by the otherwise similar Love bug or the Melissa virus, estimated to cause $80million – worth of the damages.

      In my personal view, Jan De Wit created such virus out of curiosity so he uses the virus creation toolkit using the image of Anna kournikova because during that time she was a famous and a gorgeous tennis player. Although he intentionally created such virus out of curiosity but he never think widely that in the future it can give great deal of inconvenience and damages. This Anna Kournikova virus was easily spread out, because in human nature, we are curios of anything that we really want to know, just like the image of Anna Kournikova. Most people during those times really want to see something behind this famous tennis player that’s why whenever they see her name in the e-mail, they curiously open it without knowing that it is already a virus. The moment that they open it, the virus will spread out and multiply. Whatever happens that time serves as a good point to remember to be careful in reading e-mail and to care for the importance of virus-protection and data backup.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Kournikova_(computer_virus)

http://news.cnet.com/2100-1001-252579.html

http://www.fireav.com/virusinfo/library/sst.htm

http://www.llrx.com/columns/notes39.htm

 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/09/14/anna_kournikova_virus_author_stands/

http://searchenterprisedesktop.techtarget.com/definition/Anna-Kournikova-virus