Re: Moderator note - Viruses

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Terry Fritz" <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>

Hi Jim,

I'll go ahead and post this since this is sort of an issue these days.  I
also note that the new SirCam virus needs fairly new (a few weeks old)
virus scanner definitions (guess how I know :-))).  So it is a good time to
get all the virus scanner updates too... 

I always have all the settings fixed so attachments can NOT execute from
e-mail programs.  Save them, scan, them, and then open them only if you
feel lucky.  I have even sent files to myself from work and gotten marco
virus on my home machines too :-P  I just trash all the attachments that I
am not expecting, but the virus scanners usually eat them up first... - Terry

At 12:47 PM 7/24/2001 -0700, jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net wrote:
Not necessarily for the list, Terry...

A more devious aspect of these attachment viruses, which I just found out 
about today, is that if you have Windows set up to not display extensions of 
files it knows about (i.e. the file explorer just shows XYZ, not XYZ.exe...) 
(which is the default behavior, btw), then this also applies to attachments. 
 This is why the virus writer names the attachment something like 
readme.txt.exe.... Windows looks from right to left, sees the .exe and 
helpfully displays it as readme.txt.  If the exe has an icon in it to match 
the expected icon for a .txt, then Outlook displays that icon too. how nice...


>Tesla list wrote:
>> 
>> Original poster: "Terry Fritz" <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>
>> 
>> Hi All,
>> 
>> Chip and I have noticed that virus coming into the Tesla list are fairly
>> common these days.  I got 150 viruses incoming yesterday :-))  Non today,
>> so I assume those people computers are messed up today :-(((
>> 
>> While not a problem really for Chip or me, I just wanted to remind people
>> not to open odd e-mails with any attachments unless you are sure what they
>> are.  Microsoft "Outlook" is especially vulnerable since it is so popular
>> and makes opening file attachments so easy.  Any file that ends in *.exe or
>> *.pif is really suspect.
>> 
>> Viruses that say things like "I love you", "your fat!", etc. that try to
>> get you interested enough to open that attachments seem popular these
days...
>> 
>> "Today's" popular virus (SirCam) looks like it is sent by someone you know
>> well (who has the virus) and says:
>> 
>> "Hi! How are you?
>> 
>> I send you this file in order to have your advice
>> 
>> See you later. Thanks"
>> 
>> If you open the file, Blamo!!  you got the virus too...
>> 
>> The Tesla list does not send out file attachments of any kind and all the
>> messages are in plain ASCII text.  If you ever see an attachment from the
>> Tesla list, assume it is a virus!!  Some people's local mail systems add
>> attachments which is normal and you are probably aware of that.
>> 
>> Of course, there is a bunch of virus scanning software around too if you
>> don't feel lucky.
>> 
>> Thanks to Mike for providing the info on SirCam here.
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> 
>>         Terry
>