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2001 · Security

The Anna Kournikova worm: a toolkit, a tennis star and a global outbreak

Last reviewed 5 October 2026

In February 2001 an email promising a photo of the tennis player spread worldwide. It was built with a point-and-click virus generator.

The outbreak

In February 2001, emails with an attachment named to look like a picture of Anna Kournikova began circulating. The file was a Visual Basic Script. Opening it sent the same message to everyone in the victim’s Outlook address book.

The worm did no deliberate damage to files, but the volume of mail overloaded servers at companies and organisations around the world.

Made with a kit

The author, a young Dutch man, admitted using a freely available virus-creation toolkit rather than writing the code himself. That alarmed security experts: a kit meant someone with little skill could produce a fast-spreading worm.

Toolkits like this, and their reappearance online after the outbreak, became a recurring story in early-2000s security coverage.

Aftermath

The author turned himself in and was sentenced by a Dutch court to community service. The outbreak reinforced advice that still applies: do not open unexpected attachments, and block script file types at the mail gateway.

Sources

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