Posted on 01/19/2007 6:40:55 AM PST by mfnorman
HELSINKI (Reuters) - Computer virus writers attacked thousands of computers on Friday using an unusually topical email citing raging European storms, a security company said.
The virus, which the company named "Storm Worm," was emailed to hundreds of thousands of addresses globally with the subject line "230 dead as storm batters Europe."
An attached file contained so-called malware that can infiltrate computer systems.
"What makes this exceptional is the timely nature of the attack," Mikko Hypponen, head of research at Finnish data security firm F-Secure, told Reuters. . Hypponen said thousands of computers, most in private use, had been affected.
(Excerpt) Read more at today.reuters.com ...
So someone who walks into a convenience store and gets robbed/shot deserves it because they made the choice to walk into a store????
I agree that it is indeed unwise to open unknown attachments, but "deserved" is a cold punishment indeed.
Download and run a program called "HiJackThis!".
Look for the homepage entry in the listing that gets generated and have HiJackThis delete it. Done.
Here's the email I gotyesterday.
Subject: READ AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
I checked HoaxBusters & this is real.
I checked snopes.com and this is for real..
Get this sent around to your contacts ASAP...we
don't need this spreading around.
PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY
AND CONTACTS:
You should be alert during the next days: Do not open any message with an attached filed called "Invitation" regardless of who sent it, It is a virus that opens an Olympic Torch which "burns" the whole hard disc C of your computer.
This virus will be received from someone who has your
e-mail address in his/her contact list, that is why
you should send this e-mail to all your contacts. It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it.
If you receive a mail called "invitation", though sent by a friend, do not open it and shut down your computer immediately. This is the worst virus announced by CNN, it has been classified by Microsoft as the mostdestructive virus ever.
This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept
SEND THIS E-MAIL TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW , COPY THIS E-MAIL AND SEND! IT TO YOUR FRIENDS AND REMEMBER: IF YOU SEND IT TO THEM, YOU WILL BENEFIT ALL OF US
No, no....I got "it".
Your sarcasm was very clear. I enjoyed it.
My reply wasn't so much intended as an answer to you but to people who may be looking for any tidbits on how to protect themselves from these nasties. I know a lot of folks scan these threads for info like that sometimes.
And also, there are a lot of folks who DO use their email just as you alluded to.
Those email worm attachments have warnings on them?
I just try not to be too hard on the less wary among us. I'm a jaded and cynical SOB and find the naive refreshing and necessary. I used to be ruthlessly hard on them, but age has softened me I guess.
You're right.
exe. sets the whole thing off
Easier to install than windows. Virus and shareware free, and a GREAT OS.
After the headline and the first sentence, I would have deleted it. The snopes BS is almost always a tip-off.
If you have a wireless router be sure that it is secured or anyone within 200 ft. of your router can access your connection
"Those email worm attachments have warnings on them?"
Are you serious?
WARNING: CLICKING ON THIS ATTACHMENT WILL INFECTED YOUR COMPUTER. PLEASE CLICK HERE. THANKS, AND HAVE A NICE DAY.
You mean like that? Sure.
... need to update my virus protection ping!
Thank you! Where do I find a reputable site to download? I went to CNet and got a warning message with the download that the site was not certified and should not be downloaded.
application/x-msdownload; name="Full Video.exe"
Sometimes on the newsgroups they dump them by having an attachment name like " Famous Actress Naked.AVI (Many spaces) .exe (or .SCR, etc.)
Viruses used to be just destructive bragging rights for vandals, but now are run by for-profit spam gangs who use trojans to form "Botnets" of unwitting users. They love the ones with high speed cable. One's computer seems sluggish because in the background it is sending pharmacy/casino/viagra/porn spam, and these bot networks are worth big bucks.
Things were much better, briefly when that earthquake knocked out some cables feeding .tw and .cn.
Good riddance.
Before any "xenophobe" comments: Follow the money and much of it goes HERE. They just use overseas spammers because there are no laws and no one cares, unless they are on the take.
It is directly from the manufacturer's site and will let you download the zip file for "HiJackThis!"
Get a dictionary and look in between the words sabaceous and sardine. Somewhere in there you will find the key word for today.
Helpful hint: it rhymes with orgasm.
Got two of these this morning. McAfee removed the attachment, saying it couldn't be cleaned. It correctly identified the virus.
I ran it, but it didn't work. My home page comes up with a weird address then jumps to an AOL home page. Very strange. I can get to my normal homepage in a round about way, but very time-consuming. So frustrated!
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