virus warning

[lyn]

I know this is not fishing related but more people look in here.

 

I had an email sent today. It was delivered to my 'junk mail' folder. It was from a Howard Cooper - fw; SANTA. It had an attachment - Dad.doc.pif - this attahcment was carrying a virus - W33/Bugbear@MMvirus

 

I don't know of anyone of that name so just to let you know.

 

lyn

[The Diamond Geezer]

Yep, take GREAT care to keep your anti-virus progs right up to date!

 

The Bugbear virus is everywhere and has now been upgraded to Category 4 .... it carries 4 potent payloads which can cause loads of grief to you and anyone in your address book :mad:

 

Check with your anti-virus software supplier for much more info.

 

Diamond G :cool:

[davidP]

lyn:

I know this is not fishing related but more people look in here.

 

I had an email sent today. It was delivered to my 'junk mail' folder. It was from a Howard Cooper - fw; SANTA. It had an attachment - Dad.doc.pif - this attahcment was carrying a virus - W33/Bugbear@MMvirus

 

I don't know of anyone of that name so just to let you know.

 

lyn

Lyn, if you look at previous posts about this virus you'll see that the name it gives more often than not bears no relation to the actual originator. The virus simple selects any name that it finds on the pc and fiddles the e-mail to make it look like it came from that address. So it's quite likely that Howard Cooper had nothing to do with the e-mail I'm afraid.

[Jim Roper]

I just got a reply in responce to an email that I didn't know I had sent (probably never did). Has anybody here got both myself and Sound Beach Volunteer Fire Department, Inc.

in their address book?

 

Jim Roper

 

http://www.searchlineuk.co.uk/FishList.htm

http://www.anglingforums.co.uk/

[The Diamond Geezer]

The other thing to bear in mind is that as part of its payload, every 30 secs it tries to deactivate your anti-virus and firewall software (see your software supplier's site for specific details)

 

It's a mass mailing worm that grabs files from your HDD, uses addresses from your Address Book, selects one of a huge range of Subjects... and mails them out! :mad: :mad:

[chevin]

There is a way that I believe will stop a virus sending block posts from your address book. In nick names, type in !AAAAAAAAA and for the address type in !0000000 If the virus tries to send a block posting that address will be the first one in your address book, but being as the posting cannot go to that address, it will not go to the cc's or bcc's either. At least that is what I have been told, and that seemed to be true when I tried it out.

[Newt]

Chevin - it may server to alert you that you've had infected posts sent from your PC (and therefore that you are infected).

 

However, with either Klez, Bugbear, or any other well written virus, it won't stop them from sending stuff out.

 

And I said "may alert you" because many do not start from the top of your address book but will pick from the list at random. If your bogus one is picked, you will get it back. If not, you won't.

 

About the only way you can be sure is to run an AV program that scans outgoing posts. If you have somehow gotten infected, the first act of the virus is to try and disable your AV program. The AV program should stop it and alert you if your def files are recent enough to recognize the virus. Otherwise you will be alerted when you send a post and it is not checked on the way out. That will mean your AV program is trashed.

 

However, since the virus doesn't ask or even let you know it is sending, you will only be finding out after the fact.

[Adz]

Also, Bugbear uses it's own SMTP code to e-mail stuff out... once the virus is resident in memory and the PC is connected to the internet, no e-mail package needs to be running.

 

Go here for a good killer of bugbear:

 

http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/

 

Or if you've an aversion to McAfee AV, try the one from Sophos at:

 

http://www.sophos.com/tools/bearsfx.exe

 

Both are free and quite effective. From testing, the free virus scan at http://www.antivirus.com doesn't seem to detect Bugbear - which is unusual for Trend as they're usually bang on the money.

 

Newt is right - keep your AV software up to date with the very latest release... don't rely on the above to protect you, they won't. If you've not got AV software, get some. I can personally recommend the Online service from McAfee which costs about £20 a year with unlimited updates, I've not tried the free ones like AVG, but word of mouth about them seems good.

 

Tightlines, virus free computers and bendy rods!

 

[ 10. October 2002, 04:13 PM: Message edited by: Adz ]