Meet NetSky-X, the Babel Fish worm

NetSky-X, the latest in the ever-expanding series of pesky computer worms, displays a dalliance with foreign languages previously unknown among virus writers. The latest Windows-only nuisance - discovered today - sends messages in either English, Swedish, Finnish, Polish, Norwegian, Portuguese, Italian, French or German. The "polyglot worm" is spreading extensively, particularly in mainland Europe. This spread is doubtless helped by the fact most users will be thrown by seeing an infectious email in their own language and not English, as is the norm. That's not to say the unknown author of the worm is any good at languages, though.

"In many cases the messages are composed incorrectly suggesting that the worm's author did not ask native speakers for translation or used an on-line translation service like Babel Fish," Finnish AV firm F-Secure notes.

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