VERY IMPORTANT - VIRUS ALERT

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Re: VERY IMPORTANT - VIRUS ALERT

Postby BFMF » Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:48 pm

What I want to know is why I got some of these e-mails from senders supposedly as FSTipster, library@avsim, francois, WebPA, BMan, Y2Craigie, Webmaster@simviation.com, even some FSgateway addresses.

Are these people really infected with this virus and have me in their address books, or is virus just a personal attack against our hobby?
Last edited by BFMF on Wed Aug 20, 2003 10:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: VERY IMPORTANT - VIRUS ALERT

Postby geezer » Wed Aug 20, 2003 10:24 pm

This is the SoBig virus guys in case you already don't know. It spoofs addresses on the infected computers and sends out junk to overload the Internet.

There is no personal attack. It is just that some computers that are not protected have been used as middle men to broadcast these e-mails to lists of addresses that reside on them. In most cases, the users don't even realize what is going on with their machines. It comes mostly from users that either don't have av on their machines or don't keep their pattern files up to date.

You can read about the viruses and worms we have been contending with over the last few days here:

http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/

Keep your av pattern files up to date and use a good firewall. If you are one of these guys I have heard about who doesn't have av installed because "it slows my connection down" or "I don't have time" or "I can't afford it" then you are probably the person who is enabling these virus cretins to do their business. No virus distributor is going to be the one to mount the attack. All they do is scan for ports on on-line machines, when they find an open one they go in and plant their bugs. If the bug is discovered by an av program it is gone. If not, it does its work when it is scheduled to or when it is contacted to do so by the main distributor.

If you keep your av pattern files up to date and use real time scan when you are on line, you will not have any trouble.

If you "run bare" you are either going to get infected, you are now infected, or you are going to infect someone else.
Last edited by geezer on Wed Aug 20, 2003 10:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: VERY IMPORTANT - VIRUS ALERT

Postby Professor Brensec » Thu Aug 21, 2003 12:19 am

[quote]I've recieved over 100 of these since yesterday.
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Re: VERY IMPORTANT - VIRUS ALERT

Postby Deputy » Thu Aug 21, 2003 11:23 am

Some good news - There has been a break in the case, somebody found an I.P. address. Keep it quiet, but I will keep you all  informed.
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Re: VERY IMPORTANT - VIRUS ALERT

Postby DanielF » Thu Aug 21, 2003 3:22 pm

It was quiet for me for a long time, but I got another one today at 2:20.  :P  But just one is a lot better than 100.  ;D
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Re: VERY IMPORTANT - VIRUS ALERT

Postby Lethal.Ambition » Thu Aug 21, 2003 5:43 pm

I have the McAfee Virus-scan and it comes with HAWK, a component that monitors what is being sent through my outlook.....if it notices that e-mail is being sent to more 25 percent of my contacts ( I set the percentage ) and the whole thing freeze until I set to send it or not. I love it.  I sent 4 attachments to a friend once and it alerted me
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Re: VERY IMPORTANT - VIRUS ALERT

Postby Chuck58 » Thu Aug 21, 2003 10:29 pm

I opened my emal and found 127 of the things in it. As of right now, 9:29pm, I've gotten only 3 today. Fortunately my av (ETrust) caught every one of them.

It's an interesting but apparently relatively harmless thing, more a nuisance than anything. There are far, far worse worms, trojans, and viruses out there.

If anybody is on the Internet these days without a good antivirus and firewall, they're really tempting fate. I use ETrust av (2 scan engines) and LooknStop firewall. Both are rated highly at Wilders.org, a security forum and sometimes I wonder if those are enough.
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Re: VERY IMPORTANT - VIRUS ALERT

Postby Professor Brensec » Fri Aug 22, 2003 4:09 am

I keep getting one every day that seems suspicious to me. It comes with an attachment.

The sender is 'Got StudentLoan?' and the subject field is 'ReduceYourPayments'.

As I said, I never do anything but delete everything I'm not perfectly sure I ask for. (Anyone who mants me badly enough, that I would want to talk to, has my phone number!!

I must admit that I did not run McAfee all the time, only when I was on the Net. The reason was that many of my programs (especially CFS2), were very slow and I needed as much Ram as I could muster. I have downloaded the AVG program suggested by RollerBall, and it seems to be more comprehensive and easier to understand than McAfee, which came with my Windows Millenium OP.
As of today, I have solved the long standing problem of the Compaq Pressario RAM strip.
Last edited by Professor Brensec on Fri Aug 22, 2003 11:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: VERY IMPORTANT - VIRUS ALERT

Postby Fozzer » Fri Aug 22, 2003 12:28 pm

Having had the virus W32KLEZ in the past, and remembering all the trouble it caused to all the addressees in my address book, I now keep my address book empty, and all the addresses are hand written in a paper note-book.
The only affect is that I have to write-out the full address each time I post mail, but at least it stops the circulation of the virus to others if I should I receive it.
At the moment my system is clear. I have the latest Norton up-dates, and also have Zone Alarm running.
I think that I read on the Microsoft site that the virus does not affect Windows '98 users, only XP, NT, and 2000 users.
I run Windows '98 SE... ;D...!

Cheers all... 8)...!
Paul.
(England).

P.S.  It's interesting to note that my Norton up-dates go into warp-drive every time I log-on now... :o...!
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Re: VERY IMPORTANT - VIRUS ALERT

Postby Professor Brensec » Fri Aug 22, 2003 11:47 pm

Hey Foz,

I do the same, I don't keep anything in the address book. But to save time and trouble, I keep a Notepad Doc. with all the names and addresses in 'MY Documents'.
It's in Alphabetical order, so all I have to do is copy and paste from that. It saves having to individually type out each addressee, and possibly 'misprinting' and having it returned 'no such addressee'.

Try that. There's no way a Virus will find a Notepad Doc that has nothing to do with the email system, and then recognise the characters as 'email addresses'. Is there?   ;D ;D ;)
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Re: VERY IMPORTANT - VIRUS ALERT

Postby Fozzer » Sat Aug 23, 2003 3:19 am

[quote]Hey Foz,

I do the same, I don't keep anything in the address book. But to save time and trouble, I keep a Notepad Doc. with all the names and addresses in 'MY Documents'.
It's in Alphabetical order, so all I have to do is copy and paste from that. It saves having to individually type out each addressee, and possibly 'misprinting' and having it returned 'no such addressee'.

Try that. There's no way a Virus will find a Notepad Doc that has nothing to do with the email system, and then recognise the characters as 'email addresses'. Is there?
Last edited by Fozzer on Sat Aug 23, 2003 3:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: VERY IMPORTANT - VIRUS ALERT

Postby Professor Brensec » Sat Aug 23, 2003 4:47 am

You got in with the floppy bit just as I was planning to send this suggestion:

Why not back up the Notepad info on a floppy like I do.

That way it's handy and retrievable if you PC dies.  ;D ;)

Copying and pasting is certainly less trouble than punching the info in everytime. No room for errors either.  ;D ;D ;)
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Re: VERY IMPORTANT - VIRUS ALERT

Postby loomex » Sun Aug 24, 2003 10:45 pm

I have gotten over 200 in the past three days. I finaily got one from the simV site today
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Re: VERY IMPORTANT - VIRUS ALERT

Postby Scottler » Mon Aug 25, 2003 8:28 am

Just a reminder to everyone, even though I've mentioned it earlier in the thread...

The Sobig virus is programmed to self-destruct on September 10th.

Hang in there guys...
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