Last year, the Baby New Year and Happy New Year hoaxes made the rounds again, said McGowan. People feel compelled to forward these things, year after year. Frankly, if I was a virus writer I'd attach the virus to an e-mail warning about a New Year's virus. Everyone will read it and forward it to everyone they know. Murray agrees, and suggests that systems security managers once again remind their users not to click on any attachments that they weren't specifically expecting, no matter whom the attachments come from.
People get especially stupid around the holidays.
Navidad doesn't do anything but taunt its recipients. But as with many e-mail worms, it could crash a network if it becomes widespread and spawns itself in huge numbers. Also, the vastly increased traffic clogs corporate servers. And like the Love Bug, it could spawn more malicious variations. Despite all his efforts to educate the people in his company, McGowan doesn't doubt that Navidad or some other worm will hit his network before the holiday season is over.