Virus warning!!!!!

[Stephen Green]

This is to let you know that 10Tenths has NOT mass-emailed the membership!

The following email was received by at least one member of the 10T's forum:


quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear user of ten-tenths.com,

Our main mailing server will be temporary unavaible for next two days, to continue receiving mail in these days you have to configure our free auto-forwarding service.

For more information see the attached file.

For security reasons attached file is password protected. The password is "36807".

Best wishes,

The Ten-tenths.com team
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



The attachment has been verified at being a virus.

If you get a similar email, I suggest you delete it at once!

[tangoed sparky]

Thanks Stephen

[JimW]

Just for reference, this is almost certainly the "Bagle" worm (known to NAI users as W32/Bagle.j@MM ).

Regards

Jim

[Woolley]

Mr Green, catcher of priests and now viruses.

When I say catcher of viruses, what I mean is...

No, forget it, thanks for the warning.

[Mr.Orange]

Steve, Thanks for the heads up.
There are some sick bunnies around !!!!!

[Sheila M]

Thanks Stephen - makes you wonder who starts these things doesn't it?

Sheila

[jase]

Sheila, don't start that again!

Stephen, just as a thought, should this be in announcements?

[Stephen Green]

It is in other forums already.

[Sheila M]

Just out of interest - how many people have received this message? Do we actually know?

[motorsportmarshal61]

Gespcvzk
Be carefull about this attachment programme is a
Virus "W32.Mydoom.F@mm" found
its been floating around the net for about 5 days

[Sheila M]

Originally posted by woody61uk
Gespcvzk
Be carefull about this attachment programme is a
Virus "W32.Mydoom.F@mm" found
its been floating around the net for about 5 days

That sounds technical! What does it do if it gets into your PC?

[motorsportmarshal61]

wipes the whole of your hard drive

[Sheila M]

Lovely

[Stephen Green]

it is best to delete any messages where you are unsure of the sender or content.

[motorsportmarshal61]

this one steve will open automatic depends on the system protection thought i just send the info so u can look out for it

[Stephen Green]

cheers woodie

[b1ackcr0w]

Originally posted by Sheila M
That sounds technical! What does it do if it gets into your PC?

FYI

Viruses these days are aiming much higher than just wiping a few hard drives. These days they are targetted at either 1.Damaging the reputation of massive Computer firms (Like Microsoft, Symantec etc) or 2.Making their authors lots of money. Sadly both of these things mean a lot of trouble for the innocent users of the internet like you and me.

1. Damaging reputations. The aim of the most virulent recent viurses has been to clog up email servers by exploiting flawes in the security of Microsoft's Outlook programs and Antivirus software. The viruses use problems with Outlook to redistribute themselves causing a tidal wave of email that clogs up the email servers on the internet. The point being that everybody who uses email is subjected to all sorts of misery and the resultant media coverage can't help but point out the failures of Microsoft software. The virus writers motivation is they object to Microsofts domination of the Computer world and the often high price of their software. The virus writers hope is that more people will turn to alternative operating systems like Mac OSX or Linux which are largely immune to infection. While I not a big fan of Microsoft, it's still a form of intellectual terrorism and should be stopped.

2. Making money. The other main use of recent viruses has been as a method of keeping the internet open to spam which is increasingly being clamped down upon as a legal means of advertising. Due to industry preassure, Most Internet companies will not allow spam to be sent from their servers. Therefore the spam senders will pay well for any alternative means of sustaining their surprisingly lucrative business. Virus writers will try and maintain a list of home computers that have been infected by their viruses. Once the virus is on your machine, it can then be used to distribute spam to other machines on the internet without your knowledge. Not only does this slow your PC down, it's also very embarrasing if you are traced as a source of spam.

Bearing these things in mind, there is an increasing feeling amongst the internet community that you have a duty not just to yourself but to the rest of the internet to do your bit to stop viruses wreaking their havoc. Happily this only entails two things. 1.Get a good antivirus program if you are going on the internet - Norton Antivirus is popular, as is Mcafee. At the cheaper end there is also AVG (a free version is available!) Fprot and various others. 2. KEEP YOUR ANTI VIRUS UP TO DATE!! Most programs will do this automatically for you if set up correctly, be sure that it does!

Off subject I know and apologies for that, but as an IT professional, much of the time I could spend making computers do more for people is spent keeping them virus free and it gets on my nerves!

[Sheila M]

Since reading all these horrifying stories, I think I've now got my Norton anti-virus settings set too high - I tried to send myself an e-mail with an attachment from work and my system deleted the attachment as being dodgy.

Having said that, we are experiencing difficulty at work in that people keep getting replies to e-mails which they have never sent from people they have never heard of. Funnily enough this only seems to have started since the new HP PCs were installed.

[JimW]

Originally posted by Sheila M
. . . Having said that, we are experiencing difficulty at work in that people keep getting replies to e-mails which they have never sent from people they have never heard of. Funnily enough this only seems to have started since the new HP PCs were installed.

Sheila

Relax, I say again, RELAX. This nothing to do with you and certainly nothing to do with the brand of PCs you have. The viruses most in the news at the moment sit on someone's PC, look at their address book and send one of those people a message. But the clever bit is that they manipulate the message so that it seems to have come from another name in the address book.

So my PC, if infected, looks at my address book and says "I shall send a message to Di and make it look as if it comes from Sheila".

So its nothing to do with anyone but my PC and you won't be able to trace that unless you pay someone like me lots of money to explain.

Regards

Jim

[b1ackcr0w]

Jim has a fair point Sheila, although viruses can be irritating, they are not out to get you - the people behind them are after much bigger fish!

A couple of easy little tips that will help are:-

1. Keep your anti virus up to date - that will keep 99.99% of viruses and nasties out.

2. If you get an email and you don't know the sender or there is something fishy about it - just delete it, if it was important, you'll soon find out and the sender can always send it again.

3. If you think you have a virus, don't be shy or worry about looking silly - get your IT support people on the case early and everything should be ok.

[Sheila M]

Thanks for the reassurance chaps!

I still think my Norton 2004 settings are too high though, because I can't get ANY attachments on my home e-mail now!

Ooh we didn't have these problems in the olden days when I was a girl using quill pens and parchment. Fast mail was sent by carrier pigeon and the rest went by horse and cart!

Ah well, I'll soon get the hang of this new-fangled stuff I'm sure

Sheila

[garybirch]

I'm getting so fed up with flippin viruses. I get about 4-6 a day from unknown sources.