A Tennis Star Virus?

By Stephen M. Silverman

09/23/1997 at 12:00 AM EDT

A computer virus purported to be an electronic photo of the blonde teenage tennis star Anna Kournikova overwhelmed e-mail servers throughout Europe and North America on Monday, forcing some companies to shut down their e-mail altogether, say reports. The virus would be perpetrated when the user clicked on an attachment, which would then send the virus worming its way into address books and sending itself to everyone on the list, thereby clogging e-mail servers. Computers in Australia were said to be hit the hardest, before warnings of the potential virus could be sent.