Microsoft Virus Warning

I have received this virus a dozen times in the last day. It appears to originate at [email protected] and it is NOT at all from Microsoft. It has a file attachment with various subject headings like "your details", "confirmation", etc. Do not open it. It will eat your machine. This is NOT one of those stupid virus hoax warnings like we get all the time. This IS the real deal. Do NOT open it.

Probably the recently discovered W32.Sobig.B@mm if I had to hazzard a guess.

Yep, your right MiMan. I read some where that it just opens up random porno sites.

Geoff

So what's the problem?

Yep, I got an e-mail like that. It pays to be a bit paranoid about weird stuff showing in my e-mail. I deleted it because I was not expecting anything from the Microsofties. I'll still have to update and perform a scan just in case.

Shouldn't a warning post for yet another virus affecting only Microsoft software be an automatic weekly thing?

Like maybe each Wednesday posting two lists - one listing the new Microsoft viruses since the last Wednesday, and one listing those still actively affecting everyone with a computer (because those with Microsoft software haven't yet fixed their broken systems, and they are still pumping out daily batches of 100K plus e-mail messages to everyone on the planet)?

(I just looked at my e-mail bit bucket where things my filters block end up: So far today I've received 6 copies of that Klez thing, two that I don't recognize, and 4 copies of that new one. Total size of the Windows virus crap today exceeded the total size of my 42 legit pieces of e-mail. As usual. *sigh* )



-= MICROSOFT FREE ZONE =-

I get a few of those Microhard things a day, and found on Symantec's site that there are a couple of bugs that use [email protected] as the email "from" address. The worm supposedly hooks into your computer's fire-up routine, emails copies of itself to everyone it can find on your system (I guess it even paws through the cache to dig up email addresses) and does something nasty to some of your files.

My email inbox gets scanned, and every outgoing mail gets scanned too, and so far it has all been bug-free. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I've got half a dozen of those in my bin today as well. I did some lookups on the originating IP's to try to figure out if there was maybe one poor friend with an infected work PC or something. but they are coming from all over. The latest one was from an ISP dolled out IP in Portugal. I don't know anyone from portugal! Undoubtedly he's on some mailing list that I've posted to with my real email address at some point in the past.

You windows users are saints. I can't imagine putting up with an operating system that can get permanently screwed up just by reading an email. I've been online with non-windows systems since 82 or so. I've been pretty good about running virus checkers. Good thing too as I actually HAD a virus on my Mac for a few hours in '92. No problems since then though. Perhaps I should rethink my OS choice as windows must be truly spectacular to inspire such devotion. I don't think I have it in me...

I picked Windows to be my OS because of its successful monopoly from the Microshafts. I can't think of any other OS that can boast that amount of versatility, the ability to run every one of the applications that I need to use. The poor relability is only a small price to pay.

It's not Microsoft Windows, it's just that stupid Outloook Express. Like all freebies, you get what you pay for. Eudora and Agent do not spread viruses such as Klez, since they're written to use the Outlook address book. Everybody's Granny and Aunt Dot run OE because it's there and it's free. The same type of people that use AOL.
Win2K is a great OS (this from a 20 year Unix user), but the media player, OE, and some of the other freebies are worth exactly what you pay for them.

Outlook Express. It's right there on my desktop. It's always there. Never use it. I just ignore it.

Got 2 of those today, they tried passing it off as a screensaver from Microsoft, thank goodness for Norton /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Since my ratio of spam to legit email passed the 4-to-1 mark I've switched to just downloading headers. I go thru and delete everything from anyone I don't recognize, and then do a second pass to download the real email. Even this is pretty slow, but it's way better than it was before. Of course I have Norton stuff running as well, but for the most part nothing actually lands on my PC since I've manually filtered it all out.

You can either choose not to respond to them, or you can do what my roommate has done a few times: threaten to kill them if he ever found out who they were.

I know, it can get him in trouble. But he figures if the guy being threatened has the guts to bring up the threat issue, he'll be busted for spamming as well...

I have gotten several of those lately. I never open anything from Microsoft (real or not). That Support at Microsoft dot com made me real suspicious, and I simply added it to my blocked senders list. Glad to know my alarm bells are working just fine!

I've had about half a dozen this week. The latest Norton AV update seems to field it OK, tho'.