"Music Eater": The Latest Virus

Security experts have detected a mischievous worm which slips into computers and destroys all MP3 music files. It does no other damage. Graham Cluey of security research firm Sophos said that the worm could be the brainchild of teenaged geeks since it only feeds on MP3 files. It is suspected that the music eater enters computers through USB devices.

The worm, which has been named 'W32.Deletemusic' [Symantec], 'W32/Deletemp3.worm' [McAfee], 'W32/DelMP3-A' [Sophos], does not discriminate between illegally downloaded MP3 files and legally purchased ones. It just eats them all up happily. There are also speculations that some do-gooder who wants to save the music industry from piracy may be the author of the worm. “We need not lose too much sleep over it,” said Cluey. Say that to music lovers.