Warning issued on new virus `Naked Wife`

A security company warned Tuesday of possible serious damage arising from a new computer virus called `Naked Wife,` which is rapidly spreading through e-mail.

Network Associates` McAfee Anti-Virus Emergency Response Team (AVERT) researchers said the recently discovered virus is very dangerous and was found in computers at more than 25 corporations, including Fortune 500 companies.

Naked Wife is a destructive mass-mailing worm that sends copies of itself to all the e-mail addresses in the infected users` address books, they said.

Once activated, Naked Wife deletes almost all the major system files, they said. The virus takes the form of an e-mail with the message, ``my wife never looks like that ;-).`` The worm is coded in Visual Basic 6 and compiled as an executable file named `NakedWife.exe.`

This virus, like another work named after tennis star Anna Kournikova, is intended to pique the curiosity of PC users with its provocative name.