Anna Kournikova (computer virus)

The Anna Kournikova virus (also known as VBS.OnTheFly, VBS/SST, and VBS_Kalamar) was a computer worm that emerged in February 2001. Disguised as an email attachment purportedly containing a picture of Russian tennis player Anna Kournikova, the worm exploited users' curiosity to propagate itself. Upon opening the attachment, the worm replicated by sending itself to all contacts in the victim's Microsoft Outlook address book, causing widespread email disruptions. Unlike some other viruses of its time, it did not cause direct damage to files or systems.

The worm was created by Jan de Wit, a 20-year-old Dutch student, using a Visual Basic Worm Generator program developed by an Argentinian programmer known as [K]Alamar. De Wit released the worm on February 11, 2001, and it rapidly infected millions of computers worldwide. He later turned himself in to authorities, stating that his intention was to highlight security vulnerabilities rather than cause harm. De Wit was subsequently convicted and sentenced to 150 hours of community service.