Tuesday, September 8 12:00 AM ET

Symantec Warns of kanye.w Virus in the Wild

By Brian Briggs follow me on Twitter.

Phoenix, AZ - The virus research team at anti-virus software maker Symantec announced the first sighting of the kanye.w virus in the wild. The virus uses a JavaScript exploit in Internet Explorer 8 to infect the user's computer.

Tom Stillman of Symantec said, "The virus has been spread in an email that says 'click this link if you think Kanye is a jackass.' The virus so far has a 98% click rate among users exposed to the email. I mean even Obama thinks he's a jackass, he'll probably get infected too."

The virus infects the user's media player be it iTunes, WinAmp or Windows Media Player and randomly interrupts songs with a rude message from Kanye West, like "Beyonce has a much better song than this" or "You don't care about black people" or one of many other Kanye catch phrases.

Stillman said that interrupting a media player to play a Kanye clip is a first for a virus. "These days viruses just try to turn your computer in an arm of a botnet, or spam node. This virus is just cruel. What kind of virus writer is this? How could he be so heartless?"

Microsoft and Apple are promising patches for their media players, and anti-virus makers are updating their virus definition files to take care of the virus, but the infestation is expected to be widespread.

"Face it, most computer users are morons who can't update their software without calling in the Geek Squad. How can we expect them to avoid such a clever virus as this?" said Stillman.

Stillman advises that if you are infected by the virus, you should seek shelter immediately in a basement or a bathtub and wait for Beyonce to come and remove the virus for you.