Goner Virus -- email virus wreaking havoc on web

www.mcafee.com ^ | December 4, 2001 | Christopher M. Hoss

[TC Rider]

Speaking from experience, idiot users normally rate their IT guy as an idiot.

I'm hung with not only the computers at our small firm, but also the phones, voice mail, access doors, burgler alarms, cell phones, etc.

When the idiot users, normally identified by the VP after their name, don't want to acknowledge receiving a voice mail or email from the CEO, they blame the idiot in IT for his crummy systems.

When they set off the burgler alarm after hours, they blame the cleaning people. I have the logs proving otherwise, but my boss, another VP, says it would accomplish nothing to confront them. Perhaps if my boss's name was on the call list to meet the Sheriff he would feel differently.

I had one VP who called to complain his keyboard wasn't working. I had it replaced within 3 minutes of his first call. Walking past his office about 10 minutes later, I heard him on the phone telling someone that he didn't get any work done that morning because the stupid IT guy couldn't fix his keyboard.

[Capt.YankeeMike]

huh, the last time i looked at the stats, sales was STILL the highest paid profession.....without revenue, you techie guys arent sh__.

[oc-flyfish]

I wouldn't go to the extremes you do, but I do agree that sales is what pays the bills.

(IT Professional for 11 years)

[Mopp4]

Hey Topher - thanks for this link and post ! We had one of our sales reps get this virus today.

[glock rocks]

huh, the last time i looked at the stats, sales was STILL the highest paid profession.....without revenue, you techie guys arent sh__.

actually, working for a high tech firm taught me that it is best to travel
with marketing rather than sales...

the marketing folks were enlightened, forward looking, sucked up to no one,
and had a budget that meant blackened swordfish at the regency.

not only that, the marketing guys had mba's and didn't make you feel like they
might plop their butt on the hood of your corvette at any moment.

but i do have to add that the sales guys were more entertaining on business trips.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Command Anti Virus already has a fix.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Can you post a link to Command?

[xm177e2]

Thanks. Actually, I'm pretty sure I don't have the virus, because I have multiple email addresses, and I haven't sent myself any email.

[ParityErr]

I'm a system administrator for a company in seattle and we got hit with this sucker early this morning. Now the pisser is that last week I setup my Norton for exchange server to block executable attachments with .scr being one of them. This way I wouldn't have to worry about getting hit with an unknown virus. It seems as though the ONLY executable entry I screwed up on was the .scr one. I had forgotten to add the wildcard so instead of ‘*.scr’ I had ‘.scr’.

[oc-flyfish]

Ouch, I feel your pain. I wish Norton made it easier to setup blocking. I know exactly what you are talking about. Mucking through the registry is not my favorite thing to do.

[TheRightGuy]

IT is the 911 that fools who have no personal responsibility call

Most end user issues turn out to be hardware problems,
usually something like a loose nuty behine the keyboard.

[NYpeanut]

By "chicks" you would mean whom?

[don-o]

but i do have to add that the sales guys were more entertaining on business trips.

Great comments Glock.

You ought to run with our Mktg Dept. We got the deal nailed down and we know how to have fun, when it is time for that.

For real, our corporate culture actually allows us to stealthily run the company.

Unfortunately, IT is the current weakest link, but we are so damn good, we can even compensate for that.

Too sweet!

[Jefferson Adams]

If not for this thread I know I would have opened the attachment, once again thanks FR!

Never, ever, ever open ANY attachment other than one with a .jpg or .gif extension. If someone you know sends you a spiffy new game or something, email them and ask them if they really sent it and if they ran it on their computer. If so, then - maybe - fire it up. Otherwise - never never never.

[Jefferson Adams]

A good IT department wouldn't have allowed the installation of Outlook or Exchange -- the way 99.999% of these things spread.

Agreed.

At home, I used to use Outlook Express. I MUCH prefer it to Eudora, but several months ago I reinstalled Eudora and quit using Outlook. It's just not worth the risk. And I'm still using Eudora 4, because 5 is so damned buggy. I really don't like Eudora, but I value my computer too much to use much of anything else.

[glock rocks]

For real, our corporate culture actually allows us to stealthily run the company.

you'd better hope so... a good IT manager and good marketing manager
can make (or break) the operation. granted, there are
sales, finance, upper "management" and other necessary evils,
but the future of a tech company (and most other companies) is in the future...

if your marketing dept promotes product you can't deliver, you're screwed.
if your techs tell your marketeers it can be done, and it can't, you're screwed.

however, if the technical wisdom and marketing prowess come together in
harmony... well, then, folks like me get to stay at the omni park central
and folks like you get to drive new LS 430's.

the rest is footwork.

i guess it just really racks some people that geeks can draw six figures, doesn't it...

[BFO]

Hi OC. I Assume you're near me, I'm in Newport Beach. I typically don't open unfamiliar e-mails, but the first one I got came to me from the director of my son's soccer league. Seeing the extension scr, my mind went to soccer (scr)and the association seemed (temporarily) to make sense. Now I can't get rid of the gone.scr file in my windows/system folder. Also, I walked through the Symantec site you linked, edited the registry and restarted as they instruct. Well, the little $%#^^*@#@* launches on the restart, so everyone I apologized to previously got another 3 or 4 each from me again. You sound knowledgeable on this subject. Any ideas?

[charphar]

It just wiped out Outlook in our department, and we're all on Macs. This must be a bad one. 8-(

Whoa! Wait a minute! I thought the line is that "Macs don't get viruses!" Hmmmmm.....

[JLO]

I agree. I've worked for/with the sales department plus the CEO, President and VP at several companies. They generate sales; they aren't computer folks. Neither am I by any means, but I was their support person. When I couldn't figure out simple things, then, I called IT.