At 9:27 AM -0700 12/23/99, Lazlo Nibble wrote:
> It's not. Someone hit subscribers to one of my lists late last week with the
> exact same M.O. -- it was just a one-off as far as I know, though.
>
> If you don't mind, Chuq, please keep us posted about what comes of this.
Hi, Lazlo. This is what I've come up with so far. This is the update
I posted to my mailing lists this morning:
----
I have an update on this e-mail virus attack. There is good news, and
there is bad news.
The good news: based on some discussions with other list admins, it
seems pretty clear that this is not, in fact, an attack on plaidworks
or the mailing lists.
Unfortunately, the bad news is that we have a new virus on the
internet that is propogating rapidly.
For more information, see
<http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/worm.newapt.html> for the
official score on this beast. But basically, once it infects a system
(it infects windows boxes), when an infected user receives e-mail,
the virus mails itself back out, and attempts to infect the sender of
the message.
If you run windows, you are susceptible to this worm, and you may, in
fact, be infected and passing the infection on to other list members
and anyone else sending you e-mail.
It is imperative (to ALL users) that if you aren't running anti-virus
software, on any platform, that you get it installed. If you're
running Windows, please get your anti-virus software updated (the
Symantec software update is available from the above link) and test
your system. Do not assume that your anti-virus software will protect
your or identify this virus without updating the virus definitions,
and even more especially, DO NOT ASSUME YOU ARE SAFE. This virus is
starting to propogate all over the internet, and it's less than ten
days old. I've already seen reports of the virus responding on three
mailing lists here on plaidworks, and that's a very bad sign. I'm
guessing at this point three or four subscribers are already infected.
Protect yourself. And take some time to clean up your system so you
protect those you talk to.
Any user of the mail lists found to be propogating this virus will be
removed to protect all of our other users - if you are infected, you
will propogate this virus simply by reading your e-mail. You do NOT
have to post to the mailing lists to send out the infection. And you
are not safe from this virus if you don't post to the lists, because
this virus can vector in from ANY e-mail source or any mailing list.
Be very wary of e-mail with enclosures from anyone, folks. Make sure
your anti-virus software is up to date and running, and check your
systems.
--
At least three of my lists have users infected with them, and at
least one of my lists has two users infected. God knows whether the
virus is successfully propogating among my users, but I'm not
hopeful. All list owners need to be very wary of this beast.
--
Chuq Von Rospach - Plaidworks Consulting (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
Apple Mail List Gnome (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
Pokemon is a game where children go into the woods and capture furry
little creatures and then bring them home and teach them to pit fight.
