Sad to say, but the tragic events of Hurricane Katrina are being used by virus writers to try to infect more machines. People have been increasingly receiving bogus e-mail that pretends to offer news updates about the tragedy that instead directs the user to a website that infects your machine.
Under the virus scam, the hackers send a "Trojan" virus to the victim's computer, which can give them complete access to, and control of, its files.
While the user is not infected if he or she simply read the e-mail without opening the attachment, people are urged to delete such e-mails immediately.
It is also recommended that people check that their virus-protection is up to date.
In addition to these measures, people are being encouraged to double-check the validity of any charity which asks via e-mail for a Katrina donation.