August 8, 2007 10:12

MP3 eating computer virus threatens fans music collections

Worm could wipe your music and damage MP3 players

A computer virus that targets MP3s has turned up online, according to computer industry experts.

The worm - called W32. Deletemusic - goes through an infected user's hard drive deleting all the MP3s it finds.

It also looks for any MP3s on any external drives and memory cards attached to the machine.

The memory card can then spread the worm to any other computer it is put into.

Ian Yarlott, Director Consumer Business EMEA at Trend Micro, gave tips on how to keep your machine clean.

He said: “It always pays to think before attaching an external memory card to your computer.

"Secondly, having all of your music on your hard drive and not backing it up is asking for trouble - try to back it up onto a DVD for safekeeping. Thirdly always make sure your anti-virus is up to date."

A scanning system for the virus can be found at Housecall.trendmicro.com.