A leading antivirus company warned Thursday that the Netsky worm was making a comeback on the coattails of fictional wizard Harry Potter.
British software and services company Sophos reported that infections by the three-month-old "P" variant of Netsky have risen dramatically over the past week, thanks to the worm"s ability to disguise itself as a Harry Potter game or book. The heavily promoted movie "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" opened earlier this week in Britain and premiers Friday in North America.
"Netsky-P targets young computer users by sometimes posing as content connected with the Harry Potter books and movie franchise," Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, said in a statement. "Parents need to educate their children against the threats of viruses, to ensure the popularity of Potter doesn"t cast a nasty spell on their computer systems."