New [computer] virus hitting in-boxes (W32.Novarg.A)

CNET News.com ^ | January 26, 2004, 2:14 PM PT | Robert Lemos

[FourPeas]

Antivirus firms warned on Monday of a new mass-mailing computer virus that had gained a foothold in a large number of PCs by masquerading itself as an e-mail error.

The virus, dubbed MyDoom, arrives in an in-box with one of several different random subject lines, such as "Mail Delivery System," "Test," or "Mail Transaction Failed." The body of the e-mail contains an executable file and a statement such as: "The message contains Unicode characters and has been sent as a binary attachment."

Antivirus firms were scrambling Monday afternoon to learn more about the virus, which started spreading at about 1 p.m. PST.

"A lot of the information is encrypted so we have to decrypt it," said Sharon Ruckman, senior director for antivirus software maker Symantec's security response center. Symantec has had about 40 reports of the virus in the first hour, a high rate of submission, Ruckman said.

Antivirus firms are still analyzing the virus. Variations in the body text include, "The message cannot be represented in 7-bit ASCII encoding and has been sent as a binary attachment."

The virus also seems to install another program on the victim's computer, but until the antivirus firms decrypt the program's code, the purpose of the file is unknown.

Mail systems that remove executable files from e-mails can stop the program from spreading.

More details to follow.

[VOA]

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[SierraWasp]

That's funny! I was just scanning the "latest posts" and saw your reply and read the title of the thread to Mrs. Wasp. Then I looked down and there was the little Norton Antivirus Icon receiving the latest update slowing my slow 26.4 baud connection way down!!!

[Erasmus]

Then I looked down and there was the little Norton Antivirus Icon receiving the latest update slowing my slow 26.4 baud connection way down!!!

Where are you, in the Gusev Crater?

[SierraWasp]

Not quite, but when I opened Outlook Express, there was one with the subject title "Test" from some sender I didn't recognize... And Phhhht it was deleted!!! Thank goodness for FR!!!

[roadcat]

Then I looked down and there was the little Norton Antivirus Icon receiving the latest update slowing my slow 26.4 baud connection way down!!!

And I thought I was slow putting away my 300 baud modem (which I still have if you want to upgrade).

[kingu]

*bangs head against wall*

This bug is now 56% of all e-mail traffic I'm getting. It wasn't so bad until last night when it started bouncing around the news agencies. Once that happened, I got hammered.

What is it with people? Oh, hmm - it's a zip file. Well, the text doesn't tell me what to do, so I'll open the zip file and run what is inside... DUH!

[Robert_Paulson2]

REMOVAL TOOL IS NOW ONLINE FOR FREE AT NORTON,INDIRECT LINK (READ BEFORE YOU RUN IT)

link here

REMOVAL TOOL IS NOW ONLINE FOR FREE AT NORTON:

link to download fix from norton frreeeee

YOU SHOULD PROBABLY DOWNLOAD AND RUN... IF YOU HAVE MICROSOFT