Within a few hours, a computer virus appearing as a photo of Anna Kournikova has brought down servers throughout Europe and North America. It worked almost as quickly as the Virus 'I Love You' that caused millions of dollars worth of damage last May.

This virus is referred to as a worm because it can automatically send copies of itself to all those listed within a recipients address book.

The e-mail contains the message Hi: Check This! and has an attachment named AnnaKournikova.jpg.vbs. Subject lines so far identified have been Here you have, Here you go and Here you are and then all followed with a smiley face.

It can only be spread through the Microsoft Outlook e-mail software on Windows.