Cute PC Virus Turns Kids Into Net Victims

L O N D O N, Aug. 25, 2000 -- Children everywhere beware — Pikachu is not as cuddly as he seems.

The Japanese Pokémon cartoon character has mutated on theWeb into a nasty little computer-bug, spreading himself viae-mails like the devastating “Love Bug” did.

Virus experts said Thursday the cute yellow rabbit-likecreature, a darling of the Pokémon video-game family, haspopped up in the United States, wrecking PCs that it gets intoby wiping out their system files.

Targeting Kids

“Pokey” has so far sown only a fraction of the havoc itsfamous predecessor did, but for a worrying reason. Kids, notcorporations, are this time the target of the cyber-vandals.

“We haven’t seen viruses or worms targeted at childrenbefore,” said Eric Chien, chief researcher at anti-viruscompany Symantec’s European laboratory in the Netherlands.

“This is the first one.”

“Since it comes as a little Pokémon animation, 10-year-oldsare likely to be more interested in double-clicking on it.”

Viruses infect a computer and cause damage, but rely onusers unwittingly spreading them from one PC to another. Worms,usually using the Internet, find their own way to spread.

This worm appears as an e-mail with the title “PikachuPokémon” and the English message “Pikachu is your friend.”

Japanese anti-virus firm Trend Micro advises anyonereceiving the mail to delete the file without opening it.

Pokey Bites Less, But Bites Harder

Earlier this year, the Love Bug raced around the world andcaused damage estimated from hundreds of millions of dollars tobillions — mostly in big corporations forced to shut downtheir internal communications to stamp it out.

It came as an e-mail entitled “ILOVEYOU” with an attachmentthat, if opened, infected the computer and e-mailed itself toeveryone in the user’s Microsoft Outlook address book.

Pokey, aimed at children hooked on the worldwide craze, hasspread far less rapidly and less far, giving anti-virussoftware companies like Symantec, Britain’s Sophos and TrendMicro time to mount a defense that is now in all theirproducts.

But once Pokey, first seen at the end of June, gets intoyour computer, its bite is far harder than the Love Bug’s.

It destroys all files in the Windows and Systemdirectories. The Microsoft operating system, used byfour-fifths of the world’s computers, must be reinstalled fromscratch.

Love Bug’s most prevalent versions attacked data files suchas pictures, but not the whole system — though without a backupthese files could be irreplaceable.

Wanting to Be Liked Is the Weakness

With 50,000 worms wriggling round cyberspace, Chien saidthe key to viral fame was to appeal to human emotions.

“Love Bug was not really new, but the reason it hit so manypeople was social engineering. These things require people todouble-click on them to run them. And who doesn’t like toreceive a love letter?” he said.

Nintendo Co, the video game company that owns the copyrightto the wildly popular Pokémon — or “pocket monster” — characters, was unavailable for comment.

Trend Micro said that, surprisingly, the worm had notsurfaced in Japan yet. Europe also seems to be little affectedso far.

The Love Bug and the earlier Melissa attracted so muchattention that many computer users now know they should treatunsolicited e-mail attachments with suspicion, experts say —but that is unlikely to include young children.

Chien warned that as the mobile Internet grows, so will therisk of new viruses targeted at cell phones and online pocketorganizers — though so far the only problem here has beentext-message (SMS) bombardments.

He advised people to practice safe surfing — since suspectWeb sites could also contain viruses — and preach it tochildren. He said people should stop thinking of PCs as somekind of link to a virtual world where real damage could not bedone.

“These computers may take you into cyberspace — but theyare also running the world,” he warned.