Tech: New virus

Subject: Tech: New virus
From: kendall
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 11:30 AM

Apparently, there is a new plague going around.
It's called "Mail server" and Snopes says it is for real.

Subject: RE: Tech: New virus
From: treewind
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 02:48 PM

Anyone stupid to open an attachment like that deserves... well, unfortunately it's everyone else in the world who suffers with spam sent out by the infection.

BTW the email calls itself "Mail Server Report". I think I received a copy a couple of weeks ago. My spam filter usally stops stuff like that.

Is this one significantly worse than others? There's new viruses popping up every day!

Anahata

Subject: RE: Tech: New virus
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 03:56 PM

From Truth or Fiction

"This virus warning is true and the virus is real, according virus protection sites such as Mcafee, Symantec, and F-Secure. It was first reported in September, 2006 but a warning about the virus circulated heavily in February, 2007 as well.

"F-Secure names the virus Warezov. Other virus protection sites called it Stration.bb or W32/Stration-X.

"The email says that it has been determined that emails containing a worm are being sent from your computer and that you should install the attachment to update your computer and, presumably, stop the virus from being sent. The problem, of course, is that the attachment itself is a virus that searches your computer for email addresses and sends itself to them."


The virus itself is not anything new. The use of an email claiming that you must "click something" is not in itself a virus, but should be recognized as a "Phishing attack."

If anything, the appearance of new virus forms and new worms planted by viruses may have decreased in recent months, possibly down to one or two significant ones per month. The use of "phishing" (and/or "spear phishing"¹) has dramatically increased recently.

Many AV and more general Anti-Malware programs have begun to incorporate various forms of "anti-phishing" controls, but the method seems almost invulnerable to any practical control, as it relies on the recipient being STUPID enough to click on the requested link.

As no one has yet invented an effective ANTI-STUPID device or program, any such phishing attack has a fairly good chance of producing the intended criminal result, even with a moderately invasive virus or worm.

¹ "spear phishing" is the name some have applied to phishing email disguised to look like it comes from a high ranking executive in your own company. ("Hi there. This is Bill Gates, and I want to report that Microsoft servers have detected ..." from one reportedly received by several Microserfs.) Some people possibly extend the name usage to phishing email disguised to look like it's from a "government agency," but that's not widely accepted usage.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: New virus
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 10:34 PM

"As no one has yet invented an effective ANTI-STUPID device or program"

This is related to the problem of detecting (before running it) whether or not a computer program will stop or run for ever - basically insoluable.

Subject: RE: Tech: New virus
From: kendall
Date: 02 Mar 07 - 04:36 PM

People who are just starting out with computers are inexperienced, not stupid.

Subject: RE: Tech: New virus
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 02 Mar 07 - 07:24 PM

kendall -

I was not meaning to cast aspersions on you or your input; but the problems, especially with phishing attacks cannot be attributed to "inexperience."

Microsoft scans approximately 300,000,000 computers each and every month, with their "Malware Remover." This scan is limited to those who "volunteer" for it, and includes a wide cross-spectrum of users of all skill and experience levels. The scan is ONLY for currently common malware forms/versions and ignores anything that does not CRITICALLY affect operation of the computers.

They typically find more than 60% of all machines infected with CRITICAL and DAMAGING malware, and recent reports have found approximately 15% of machines each infected with more than 50 different infections on the same machine.

A very large percentage of these machines are on corporate networks, with excellent AntiVirus, effective Firewalls, anti-spam at the "front door," reasonably available advice and support from mostly competent(?) IT professionals; and are as close to being "invulnerable" as is reasonably possible, with the ONLY possible means of infection being the operator who "just can't resist that one click to see what it is."

Infections of the kinds found are also probably more common on networked machines (at universities and businesses) because after the IDIOT clicks, it's so cute (s)he sends it to nine-dozen others so they can click too.

An individual new user does face a tremendous task in getting up to speed on what's safe and what isn't. A ten-minute talk with the salesman who set you up should be enough to get you going, although the value of the assistance one gets can be extremely variable.

That you reported what you heard about this one threat does show an awareness of the kinds of things that need watching. That you've read the thread enough to be (unintentionally) offended indicates you're making an effort.

Welcome to the minority party, and keep at it.

Be aware too, that after a period of experience, many people start to think "I'm smart enough to peek and not get hurt." (Becaue they're now "experienced users.") Many phishing scams flatter the ego to elicit this effect, and continued appearance of the attempts means they're being much too successful.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: New virus
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 02 Mar 07 - 08:45 PM

John (and kendall)

Some years ago, a worm went thru most of the Telstra Unix networked boxes - most people who were Sys Admins ran as 'root' for all their normal stuff... :-) far too clever to bother logging out and logging in as a normal user - which would have prevented the spread completely...

You got the right word John - IDIOTS!!!! :-)

Subject: RE: Tech: New virus
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Mar 07 - 11:43 PM

A couple of days ago every time I tried to open my Yahoo mail my antivirus software kept stopping it and telling of of the w32.feebs virus. I tried to reach Yahoo in different ways and kept encountering that virus. It must have infected their site for a while. It finally cleared up. My computer denied access to the Yahoo server, it couldn't fix the file or delete it.

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: New virus
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 03 Mar 07 - 01:10 AM

Yeah, Foolestroupe - but it's always

        THOSE OTHER IDIOTS,

never us 'uns.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: New virus
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 03 Mar 07 - 08:33 AM

John, here's a little present for you to add to your ASCII Art Collection...


..................../´¯/)
...................,/¯../
................../..../
............/´¯/'...'/´¯¯`·¸
........./'/.../..../......./¨¯\
.......('(...´...´.... ¯~/'...')
........\.................'.../
.........''...\.......... _.·´
...........\..............(
.............\.............\

Subject: RE: Tech: New virus
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 03 Mar 07 - 04:53 PM

Foolestroupe -

For an old fart you're way more up to date than I expected.

Of course you're referring to the new "biological identification" systems that have begun to appear on some new machines - especially laptops. You have to stick your finger on the "print reader" and if your fingerprint doesn't match the stored image the machine won't let you in.

It's gonna be a b!!!!ch for those of us who still get our hands dirty once in a while.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: New virus
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 03 Mar 07 - 08:27 PM

Actually John - more up to date than you might think - there is a new "biological identification" system - but it only works for males....

It was Hitler who famously said "What I have, I hold!"