-Caveat Lector-
Come on conspirators what do you think ... have heard nary a peep
on this one which affects us all so strongly . Is it a Big
Brother move to convince us of the fact that tracking software is
our friend and will keep these things from happening ? Did the
White House do it to try and prevent us from ganging up on
Klinton or finding out the truth ? Was it just a hacker out to
attack the Korporate world ?The campaign against pornography on
the web ? the Russians ? AOL?
Surely someone has some ideas to share ........
Divine~
==================================================
If you don't have anything nice to say , come sit next to me .
==================================================
--- Bill Richer wrote:
> -Caveat Lector-
>
> Tuesday March 30 1:49 AM ET
>
> 'Melissa' Virus Plays Havoc With E-Mail
>
> By Dick Satran
>
> SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A computer virus described as the
> most widespread
> ever hit the Internet Monday, forcing some companies to shut
> electronic mail
> systems and prompting an investigation by the FBI cybercrime
> unit.
>
> Computer security firms had issued warnings through a wide
> variety of media
> over the weekend that the virus called ''Melissa'' would be
> sprung on millions
> of users.
>
> ``This has caused the havoc we expected,'' said Sal Viveros, a
> vice president
> of marketing at the No. 1 computer security firm, Network
> Associates Inc., in
> a Monday conference call. ''It's seriously hit virtually
> everyone.''
>
> The virus, named Melissa, greeted huge numbers of workers as
> they signed on to
> their e-mail systems at the start of the work week, spreading
> ``more quickly
> than any other virus in the history of viruses,'' Viveros
said.
>
> The Federal Bureau of Investigations's National Infrastructure
> Protection
> Center said it was notified of the virus Friday and has
> received reports of
> ``significant network degradation and e-mail outages'' at
major
> corporations
> and Internet service providers.
>
> The virus uses a high-powered automation technology built into
> most personal
> computers, and a simple, personal touch, to propagate itself.
>
> Often disguised as a message from a friend or colleague,
> Melissa is a simple
> e-mail sent to unsuspecting users, saying ''Important message
> from....'' But
> when users open the message, it can cause a flood of new
> e-mails to be sent
> over the Internet from the reader's own online address book.
>
> Clicking on the e-mail triggers a powerful ``macro'' --
> automation software
> built into millions of computers using Microsoft's Windows
> operating system --
> that can automatically trigger up to 50 new e-mails.
>
> In many cases, computer users are warned of the presence of
the
> automated
> messaging, but the virus de-activates the warning system for
> some computers,
> making it harder to detect.
>
> The virus appeared not to have caused any significant damage
to
> computers,
> although it flooded some e-mail services and exposed a
weakness
> that future
> hackers could exploit more maliciously.
>
> Indeed, Network Associates said a more damaging virus,
> code-named ``Papa'',
> had already cropped up Monday. It was a more elaborate program
> using a similar
> e-mail delivery of a macro that could disrupt Excel
> spreadsheets.
>
> The biggest impact, though, appeared to come from a temporary
> shutdown of
> computer systems by cautious computer managers trying to keep
> their systems
> from being overwhelmed. Computer experts said it was also
> possible that other
> confidential documents could be sent inadvertently, though
> Network Associates
> knew of no such cases.
>
> ``A number of our large customers have had to take their
> servers down and for
> a lot of companies e-mail is the main method of
> communications,'' said Network
> Associates's Viveros. ''Having that down has caused lots of
> havoc.''
>
> At Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University, the Computer
> Emergency Response
> Team received scores of inquiries.
>
> ``We are getting a steady stream of phone calls this morning
> from
> organizations who have been affected by the virus,'' Jeff
> Carpenter at CERT
> said Monday.
>
> CERT estimated the bug affected more than 100,000 machines.
> Carpenter said
> more than 150 companies had complained about Melissa.
>
> The virus comes in the form of a document that lists
> pornography sites on the
> Internet's World Wide Web of computer networks.
>
> One office worker in Austin, Texas, Jennifer Mehlow, said she
> got a message
> that appeared to be from a colleague in the company. But when
> she saw the list
> of porn sites, she reported it to her computer system manager.
> By then, the
> macro had been triggered, sending scores of messages over the
> Internet.
>
> ``I came in this morning and I had 213 nasty e-mails attacking
> me,'' said
> Mehlow, a press relations specialist at Fleishman-Hillard in
> Austin.
>
> Lucent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:LU - news) the world's largest
> telecommunications equipment maker, Friday received a copy of
> the tainted
> note. It shut its e-mail system for the weekend in an effort
to
> inoculate
> itself, a Lucent spokesman said.
>
> Intel Corp. (Nasdaq:INTC - news) and Microsoft Corp.
> (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) were
> other leading companies that reported being hit by Melissa,
> although Microsoft
> Chairman Bill Gates said the response generally showed the
> industry's anti-
> virus system works well.
>
> ``We and some of our partners who focus on the whole antivirus
> area had to
> respond pretty quickly last week,'' said Gates in a conference
> call. ``As far
> as I know, that information is getting out to people and this
> particular virus
> has been addressed.''
>
> Several anti-virus software makers, including Network
> Associates Inc. and
> Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq:SYMC - news), Sendmail Inc. and Trend
> Micro have posted
> to their Web sites programs that can detect the virus and
> repair systems that
> have been infected.
>
> Warning! Melissa Virus
> Microsoft Word and Outlook users
>
> A new Microsoft Word 97 and Microsoft 2000 virus named Melissa
> was discovered
> on Friday, March 26, 1999, and is said to be spreading widely
> on the Internet.
>
> You can become infected with this virus by downloading and
> opening an infected
> Microsoft Word document attached to an e-mail. The e-mail may
> look similar to
> the sample e-mail provided below, or it may have no subject
> line at all. You
> can also become infected by downloading an infected file
> inadvertently sent to
> you by an infected friend or colleague. Once the downloaded
> file is opened,
> the virus spreads to all Microsoft Word files created or
edited
> on the
> infected computer.
>
> Note! This infected e-mail may come from, or look like it came
> from someone
> you know! Be alert for short e-mails that ask you to download
> an attached
> file. And always be cautious in downloading files from people
> or sources you
> do not know.
>
> Once your computer is infected, it will spread the virus in
one
> of two ways.
> If you also use Microsoft Outlook, the virus will be
> automatically e-mailed as
> an attached file to the first 50 people in your Outlook
address
> book. Those 50
> people will receive an e-mail like the one provided below.
> Second, you will
> inadvertently infect others if you send them infected
Microsoft
> Word files
> attached to an e-mail message. Once infected, the virus will
=== message truncated ===
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