Digital images hit by the virus bug

A new kind of computer virus recently shattered the long-held belief that pictures and other data files are immune to viruses. Security researchers discovered the threat, called "Perrun," can infect JPEGs, the most popular format for posting digital photos on the Web and transferring them via the Internet.

Perrun arrives like many other viruses as a program attached to an e-mail, but, in its present form, lacks the ability to spread itself. Once opened, the virus installs itself on the victim’s hard drive and can corrupt the user’s pictures or cause other mischief on the infected PC—without the user ever knowing. Because the images will display normally, the user may not suspect files are infected and pass the images on to another computer via e-mail, CD, or floppy disk.

Antivirus experts stress that the virus poses no harm yet, but admit it’s only a matter of time before someone uses Perrun as a template to build a dangerous, more malicious virus. Installing and using up-to-date virus-protection software remains the best defense against this and other computer-security threats. Regularly check for software and virus-definition updates and scan every file you receive to keep your computer virus-free.

Illustration © Digital Vision.

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