Kama Sutra Malware Puts You in Position for Hack Attack

Jan. 13, 2011— -- The Kama Sutra may help you score points in the bedroom, but a new PowerPoint file on the ancient guide to sex will only raise your chances of scoring something else: a rendezvous with computer hackers.

According to the security research firm Sophos, an illustration-heavy PowerPoint presentation demonstrating more than a dozen different sexual positions is actually a vicious piece of malware in disguise.

The file, called "Real kamasutra.pps.exe," masquarades as a legitimate PowerPoint deck. But as you click through slides describing various sexual positions, with such names as "The Frog," "Wheelbarrow," and "Lyons Stagecoach," your computer runs a program that lets hackers remotely control your computer.

Graham Clulely, a senior technology consultant at Sophos, said the malware was spotted for the first time earlier this week, but isn't particularly widespread.

"It's interesting, obviously, because of the rather old-school technique of trying to get you to click on the file by appealing to the cave man inside everybody," he said.

Once downloaded, he said the PowerPoint deck serves as a decoy while malware quietly installs itself in the computer. The malicious code gives hackers a backdoor to your PC, which they can they use to execute any number of unwanted tasks.

They could access your every computer file, watch your every key stroke, steal your passwords to online bank accounts and steal your identity.

"The ball is in the court of the hacker," he said.

Clulely said that while computer users may be well-schooled in the ways of computer security, they still fall victim to techniques that rely on sex and money.