If you get an email over the next few weeks titled either “You and I Forever”, “A Valentine Love Song” or “For My Valentine” then its probably a virus trying to infiltrate your PC.

Virus spotters Panda Security have found these new malware strains and are warning against opening them as everyone in your address book will end up with the same email and the virus.

Luis Corrons, Technical Director of PandaLabs, told UKLEblog, “Year after year we see the appearance of several malware strains that use Valentine’s Day as bait to attract users. This indicates that cyber-crooks are still reaping the benefits of this technique and many people still fall into the trap.”

Over the last few years several malware specimens have been detected that use Valentine’s Day as bait to spread and infect users. Malware strains like Nuwar.D or the A and B variants of Nurech spread in emails with love themes and subjects like: “You and I Forever,” “A Valentine Love Song,” or “For My Valentine.” In the case of Nurech.B the malicious code hid in an attached file with names such as “FLASH POSTCARD.EXE” or “GREETING CARD.EXE”.

Panda Security have a series of tips to avoid falling victim to one of these malicious codes:

• Do not open any emails that come from unknown sources.
• Do not click any links included in email messages, even though they may come from reliable sources. It is better to type them in the address bar.
• Do not run attached files that come from unknown sources. Stay on the alert for files that claim to be Valentine’s greeting cards, romantic videos, etc.
• Have an effective security solution installed, capable of detecting both known and new malware strains.

Panda Security offers several free tools for scanning computers for malware.

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