URGENT Virus Alert

Foks, if your anti-virus software is not up to date, get it current now! In the last few minutes I have received 2 emails that Norton says were infected, both from Forum members. I know I am in one of the people's address books, I wouldn't think I am in the others.

Bottom line, there is a virus quickly making its way thru Forum members, so be aware.

Dave

Our computer guru at work sent this via our in house e-maill just now...

Sobig Virus Picks Up Steam
After taking most of 2002 off, the world's virus writers seem to be making up for lost time in the early part of 2003. A new virus, known as Sobig, is spreading rapidly Monday on the Internet, infecting machines worldwide. The virus, which appears to attack Windows machines running Microsoft Corp.'s Outlook e-mail client, was first seen late last week but has picked up considerable steam in the last 24 hours. MessageLabs Ltd., a British company that tracks viruses, has seen more than 10,000 copies of
Sobig on Monday alone and more than 20,000 copies total. Some users in the United States on Monday were being flooded with virus-infected messages, some receiving as many as 20-30 an hour. Not much is known about the virus at this point, but it seems to be a mass-mailing worm that behaves much like the Lirva worm that began spreading last week. It arrives via e-mail, always in a message from the address big@boss.com and carrying one of four subject lines:
Re: Movies; Re: Document; Re: here is that sample; Re: Sample
The message also includes an attachment, whose filename could include Document003.pif, Sample.pif, Movie_0074.mpeg.pif and Untitled1.pif, according to MessageLabs analysis of the virus.
Sobig uses its own SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol) engine to mail copies of itself to addresses that it finds on the infected machine's hard drive and e-mail address book. The virus also copies itself to two shared folders on shared network drives. Sobig then downloads from a Geocities site a file that contains a link to another file located elsewhere on the Internet. The worm downloads this second file and executes it on the infected machine. It's unclear what the file does. Anti-virus vendor Trend Micro Inc. said the worm might also send an e-mail to its creator, notifying him of which machines are infected.

W32.Sobig.A@mm

I have received 6 emails in the last 2 days that Norton has detected and eliminated. Sure makes the yearly dues to Norton well worth the money.

Rich

I got a blank e-mail from CHIDESTER with the subject line Interbet Casino.

I gotten several empty e-mails in the last few days. It usually means the Virus Program has stripped the contents out.

Dennis

I've gotten two from a couple of other forum members. Same type of deal. How do these get started?

I seem ok and Norton is checking, but I updated my definations to be sure.

Chuck

I haven't received any similar messages as listed in this thread. I do not use Microsoft Outlook because I'm an AOL customer.

Has anyone on AOL received this virus?

Bob

I receive several virus emails a week.
1) Keeping your anit-virus up-to-date is well worth it.
2) If you are on any version of Microsoft Windows, it is advisable to periodically go to windowsupdate.microsoft.com and install any security or critical updates shown.
3) If you get one of these, don't be too quick to blame the person shown in the "from" line. Many of these viruses, once they infect a computer, will use "spoofing" when they spread. The virus will send emails to individuals in the Address Book and will insert another name from the Address Book into the "from" line, making it look like the message is coming from a different computer than it actually is.

I update my Norton Antivirus every week. Last week I was hit with the Klez virus which attached itself to over 120 files and knocked out my accounting program. I had to go the Symantec to down load a cure. Only lost a few files (mostly saved e-mails) and nothing important. But you never know what else will be out there.I guess I will update every time I log on now.

I also recived several blank e-mails from forum members just before Klez got through last week.

Dale

It's too bad the person or people who take the time to develop computer viruses don't use their intelligence for better purposes.

Knock on wood, nothing has struck my computer yet.
I hope it stays that way.

Bob

I got word last week from a forum member (Dale)that I had a virus on my computer. He had received an email from me and it was infected. I was upset to say the least and immediately checked my computer with Virus scan and found nothing. My computer was clean. We came to the conclusion that the email had come from someone else as mine had a different name on it. I have McAfee and have it running constantly. I try to be as safe as possible. IF any of you out there have any ideas how to better protect our computers, I sure wish you would share that information.

Bert

I hate to call 'viruses' and those who creat them 'smart', but they have gotten more clever.

What they seem to do is grab someone's email name and address from another person's computer and then send out virus laced emails from yet a third person's computer.

This makes it look like the email is coming from someone's PC (like Bert's) when it is not.

Safest bet is to always use protection that checks in-coming and out-going emails.

more important than having an active virus scan is to update it on a very regular basis. A virus scan from last week loses all the protection on viruses that have erupted since then. I use symantec and have it automatically notify me when updates are available so that I can install them. I'm sure McAfee does the same.

This is very important.
About three months ago I was having computer problems, so I reinstalled windows.
It seemed to run better but I wasn’t able to get my Norton firewall and virus updates any more. I called Norton and they gave me a fix. It didn’t work so the girl at the Norton help desk said that there is nothing she could do and I would have to get a new version of Norton.

I didn’t get the new Norton antiverus and firewall right away. In about a month my computer caught a nasty worm virus that made it constantly work. And then the worst thing happened. A hacker was able to take my AOL password.
It is an awful feeling when you are trying to get into AOL and someone else is in it.
I called Aol and they where able to kick him off and I had to change my Password. I then tried again. This time The Hacker was using my Daughters Password. The whole family had to change their passwords. I immediately when out and bought the latest Norton virus and firewall protection. It now automatically downloads with out me doing a thing.

About once a day the new firewall protection has stop someone from looking into my computer. It also gives you the computer number of the person looking.

If one has AOL as a dial up, it is too easy for a virus to find its way on a computer.I have digital through my cable company and so far so good.Way back when, I thought AOL was great,my what an education on internet servers can do for a person
Rick

I must be on a rare AOL dial-up. I've been with AOL since 1997 and only one virus ever made it on to my computer. It was the one with the fireworks display. I've had a few suspicious emails that may have contained viruses but I just deleted them.

I don't think anyone who uses Microsoft Outlook for mail can say the same.

Bob

Here is a story about another virus that may effect internet service:

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/01/25/internet.attack/index.html