Greetings fellow Silver Listers, I've gotten feedback from several of you on more suspicious messages that have been received in the last day or so. Thanks to Kevin, Annie, Jannette, James, Robb, Rick, and anyone else I may have missed!
Again, so far nothing has propagated *through the list*, but many people have copies of old or unread silver list messages in their mail folders and *these* are being harvested for addresses by some variant of the Bugbear worm. Also, strangely enough, at least one member's ISP is being so cautious that they are blocking or flagging some messages from the list that are quite harmless. The terrorists are winning, eh? Thanks to Kevin for pointing this out... McAffee is the first to mention the fact that this bug is grabbing pieces of actual messages to use as camoflage. Here is the web address of their reports: http://www.mcafee.com/anti-virus/viruses/bugbear/ http://vil.mcafee.com/dispVirus.asp?virus_k=99728 The folks at Trend Micro don't seem to have picked up on the program's clever use of disguise. Their report still says the body is blank and subject field comes from an internal list... http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/virusencyclo/default5.asp?VName=WORM_BUG BEAR.A It is almost certain that whoever is sending out these messages is a current or recent subscriber to the silver list or digest, with copies of list messages still in their mail system. They needn't even have ever posted to the list, so we may not know them at all. It's also likely that they are totally unaware of what's happening. If you'd like to check your machine and don't already have an up-to-date anti-virus program on hand, Trend Micro offers a free, online, web based virus check using a java version of their scan engine. It's slower than their regular product but works quite well... http://housecall.antivirus.com/ The only defense against these things is proper hygiene and fortifying your machine, folks! If you're on Windows, visit the Windows Update site and download the most recent security patches for Internet Explorer and Outlook. If you don't already have a firewall, download a copy of ZoneAlarm from http://www.zonelabs.com/ and install it! They have a free version that is very good. I have used it for a couple of years now. Run some kind of virus protection... McAffee and Trend Micro are only two of the companies that offer such products. We've heard of others here on the list as well. Never preview or open any attachment unless it is from a trusted source *and* you are expecting it... Let me know if you need assistance or glean any useful clues about the ongoing assault. Some of us can probably help you to sanitize your machine if you discover you're infected. Meanwhile, I thank you all for your restraint in not overwhelming the list with discussion of these distractions, and your continued sharing of good information for us students of alternative health. Be well, Mike Devour silver-list owner [Mike Devour, Citizen, Patriot, Libertarian] [[email protected] ] [Speaking only for myself... ] -- The silver-list is a moderated forum for discussion of colloidal silver. Instructions for unsubscribing may be found at: http://silverlist.org To post, address your message to: [email protected] Silver-list archive: http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/index.html List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]>
