Microsoft is warning Windows users about a virus that takes over PCs via the popular PowerPoint program.Attached to the virus is a poisoned presentation that, if opened, installs keylogging software on a computer.Users are being told to take care because it could be weeks before Microsoft produces a patch that protects against the security loophole.So far relatively few people are thought to have been caught out by the booby-trapped presentation.The bug that the malicious hackers behind the virus have exploited has been found in PowerPoint 2000, 2002 and 2003.Security experts said the virus was aimed at companies in Asia because Chinese characters are used in the subject line of the e-mail the booby-trapped files are attached to and in name of the poisoned PowerPoint presentation.The presentation purports to be 18 humorous slides about love between men and women.The PowerPoint presentation is attached to an e-mail that arrives from a Google GMail address.Anyone opening the PowerPoint file will trigger the virus that installs a keylogger that records everything typed on an infected machine. It also opens up a backdoor into that machine that the creators of the virus are likely to exploit to gather the recorded keystrokes or to install other malicious programs.
