Last night (Tuesday 8/19) a worm or virus replicated hundreds of messages with 100kb+ attachments.  Some of you may have been affected as were those in ATL.

One thing to note here, the source of the malicious messages is not the "Sender".  So don't get pissed at your friends, clients associates...  (at least not yet).

I'd like to compare IP addresses of the actual sources with others who were affected.  Not sure what forum to accomplish this in, but castration with a rusty razor sounds like a fun fate for the culprits.

Although I was not affected, an associate was inundated.  interesting in that the targeted email addy was never publicly used.

Here's a link to the Symanted security alert:
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/[email protected]

-- Modified on 8/20/2003 1:16:27 PM

I was one who was infected by the virus too,
It was driving me crazy.
Thanks for the Info!

Try to use different terms !!!!

Around here .. a worm or a virus jamming an 'in box' can have a whole different and much more frightening meaning!

out of respect for 9/11 ... i suppose

it's been a major hassle at my work ... lots of down time ... loss of productivity up the ying-yang .... headaches for IT profs (nine ways from sunday!


heck, it even dared to bring to a screeching halt me and my pervy colleagues' habitual porn-surfing for nearly a whole freaking day

I had about 25 in my throwaway free email account. But none in my ISP account. I always try to envison the little losers sitting behind their computers who do this - what sad, little lives they must have.

I used to have a mac,  granted, I got no viruses,  but then I couldnt open the attachments even when I wanted to.  I chose instead to go with the pc.

And because most people use it for business, I do believe that is WHY viruses are targeted for PC's.  Are you saying no one could find a way to infect a mac, should they decide to target them?  

Sorry if I sound rudimentary here, but it doesnt really make sense to me why macs would be targeted for viruses, especially considering how and why they are mainly used.



-- Modified on 8/20/2003 3:30:56 PM

That is why I have been going to remote servers to retrieve my mail.  Even though I have automatic DAILY updates on my Norton Systemworks I got bombed with 493 emails last night within 2 hours!  I immediately shut down Outlook Express and went to mail2web.  As soon as I had deleted the infected files, another 50 were in my cue.

As far as the sources, they came from other providers (most of those with whom I've never corresponded, then the ensuing autoresponders to my autoresponder, emails filled with Symantec notices of virus infection deletions, failure of delivery notices, and emails that must have come from cookies of websites I've visited.  I even got several from TER, although they are so on top of everything that I am sure it's been taken care of by now.  

-- Modified on 8/20/2003 3:20:57 PM

Reminds me of some of the gangster rites of passage where such behavior is applauded.  

And yes, hr, I agree, it seems pathetic to be in theses persons' shoes.  Then again, I guess plenty of people have axes to grind.

End of my speech.





-- Modified on 8/20/2003 3:29:21 PM

I've deleted about 600 so far today..feel like I'm swatting flies in a tornado..

Join the club

I had to ask my webmaster for help! I was getting hit left and right with emails with attachments. My webmaster emailed me a tool to find the worm and delete it. I will say after doing this, the emails have slowed down a bit.

Mel

Actually, there AREN'T as many holes in the Mac OS as their are in Windows. Microsoft posts "critical updates" to Windows XP almost weekly to patch the security holes that people keep discovering. From what I've read, the "blaster" worm exploited a hole that's been known for several iterations of the Windows OS.

It's almost pathetic that the Department of Homeland Security selected Windows for its server software, considering how insecure Windows seems to be.

Now that the underpinnings of the Mac are UNIX rather than entirely proprietary, the risk of people finding holes to exploit is higher, but it doesn't seem to happen much. Some of that is indeed because it's harder to propagate something quickly if only 5% of the population are susceptible.

The sad, little people who send out these viruses want to harm as many people as possible. Macs only have 4% market share. Not worth the effort.

No computer that grants access to the outside world is immune to successful attacks.

everyone scanned their computer for the virus to make sure they are not adding to the problem? Just an idea.

And I'm now using OS X and it is the best computing experience ever.

Re:Join the club

I seem to have got off lightly compared to some of you.  I had 200 emails yesterday and only a handful today.  No big deal as I don't open emails with attachments (the dodgy ones are usually very easy to spot) but it took a while to go through and pick out the real emails and delete the rest.  Can't say it got me too annoyed, I'm just pleased my computer didn't get infected.

Also, if your anti-virus software doesn't automatically update, go to the vendor website and get the latest.