Free Republic

A new variation of the long-running Sober worm uses extremely effective tactics to trick users into infecting their PCs, security companies said Tuesday, including posing as messages from the FBI and CIA. Sober.w -- called Sober.x by Symantec, and Sober.z by Sophos and F-Secure -- is spreading rapidly, said security experts, fast enough for vendors to have amplified their threat levels Tuesday. Symantec raised its warning to a "3" in its 1 through 5 scale, the first time since the Zotob outbreak in August that the Cupertino, Calif.-based anti-virus vendor has taken a worm to that threat level. "The rate...

NEW ORLEANS - A retired elementary teacher who was repeatedly punched in the head by police in an incident caught on videotape said Monday he was not drunk, put up no resistance and was baffled by what happened. Robert Davis said he had returned to New Orleans to check on property his family owns in the storm-ravaged city, and was out looking to buy cigarettes when he was beaten and arrested Saturday night in the French Quarter. Police have alleged that the 64-year-old Davis was publicly intoxicated, a charge he strongly denied as he stood on the street corner where...

It uses a new technique to avoid virus software scans The longevity of the current Sober worm may be largely due to a new technique it uses to evade virus scans, according to antivirus firm Kaspersky Lab Ltd. The worm, variously labeled Sober.P, Sober.S, Sober.O and Sober.V by different companies, continues to circulate in large numbers; it made up 84% of all virus traffic as of Monday, according to Lynnfield, Mass.-based virus lab Sophos PLC. While researchers have attributed its success to the fact that it circulates in both English and German, and to its use of free World Cup...

To Any Person Who Suspects They May Have a Drinking Problem, I have written this to describe my experiences of the past 14 months as I have worked to resolve my drinking problem. Everyone is different and I do not propose to be an expert on this topic, but I have my own personal experience and I am sharing it in the hope that it might help someone else to solve this problem and change their life. I have now been sober for 14 months without a drop of alcohol. This is not a long time as compared to over...

My salvation and my honor come from God alone. He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me.-- Psalms 62:7 (NLT) I got sober in the summer of 1983, in Anchorage. I was playing six nights a week with a rock and roll band in the lounge of one of the town's flossiest hotels, so when I walked into my first AA meeting, everybody knew who I was. And when I stopped boozing and drugging, because I was living with the band, everybody at work knew what I had done. I was not anonymous at all. In...