Security experts have warned that an evil virus is masquerading as pictures of pop princess Britney Spears.

Some might say it was only a matter of time before the pop diva appeared in the virus spotlight, following similar attempts to play on user curiosity by viruses masquerading as pics of Jennifer Lopez and Anna Kournikova.

The Britney virus doesn't appear to be too well put together, though.

Arriving as a Visual Basic Script (VBS) called 'Britney.chm', once executed the malicious file even asks users to "Enable ActiveX to see Britny (sic) Pictures".

A machine that has ActiveX running will promptly be infected and the message will be sent on to all addresses in the Outlook address book.

The worm is also capable of distributing itself via Internet Relay Chat (IRC).

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, said: "Britney has joined the ranks of glamorous, highly attractive people to have viruses written about them."

He warned users to be vigilant against these social engineering types of attacks.

"Britney is a very popular celebrity and many computer users, from teenyboppers to fascinated fathers, would be interested in seeing photos of her."