Virus Warning

“I have gotten three emails today from the same source with attachments infected with

Virus W32.Sircam.Worm@mm


From Sender: Brooks Tutor

Originating from brooks_tutor@hotmail.com

Don't any such email”

“Get Norton Anti-Virus. Be sure to enable the "automatic update" feature.

My computer hasn't been infected with a single virus in the year or so that I've had Norton.”

“Norton told me about it. No infection.”

“More fun&games...

http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/sircam.shtml" TARGET="_blank">SirCam description.

--16 August 2001 SirCam Ebbing Slowly
The SirCam worm accounted for 65% of all reported viruses reported to
one antivirus company. The worm has not abated at the rate other worms
have due to its people's inherent curiosity about the attachments.
[Sircam is leaking substantial amounts of proprietary information.]

Story at Wired.”

“i download a lot of stuff.. music, software, movies.. i never use a virus scanner.. i hate them cause they slow up your pc. if you are smart you dont really need one..

i have only gotten one virus.. it was from a friends disk..

i have about 100 cd's full of stuff i have downloaded so far.. and thats just the stuff i kept.

i think it is addictive.”

“Not using anti-virus software these days is just crazy, IMHO.

A larger problem might be trojans which can allow a hacker to take control of your computer, grab any of your files, allow themselves to be notified when you are online, or possibly delete your files and bring your system down. For a good trojan cleaner go to moosoft.com.

You should also be running a firewall program such as ZoneAlarm from Zone Labs, Norton Internet Security or BlackICE Defender.”

“I got Norton Anti-Virus too. It's very good about keeping you updated on any new Virus out there.”

“I also use Norton AntiVirus. We get the new patterns at work prior to their general release to the public. We do a lot of work with Symantec doing regression testing.

I use a hardware firewall at home and will soon be installing Norton Internet Security software firewall at home to prevent data from going out that I do not want to go out. The hardware firewall does a great job at not allowing things to come in like hacker scans for ports.”

“I just installed Norton Family Security. My 17 year old has crashed 3 or 4 computers since he was 10. Two were from viruses, I believe.”

“the only thing i really worry about is a bios flash (or other hardware destruction)..

if my system ever got screwed i would just fix it.. a bios flash requires finding someone with the same mobo (faster than tech support).

everything i need is backed up. i could format my hdd at any time, and be right back where i am now in about an hour.

i tend to screw things up myself pretty often. i dont need a hackers help.”

“I have been bitten by the SirCam virus twice. The first time I did not have the current version of McAfee. The second time was yesterday even with the current version of McAfee. It told me I had the virus AFTER the damage was done. I am sort of pissed off that it didn't warn me right when the file came in. What's with that?

Anyway, my son downloaded a program off the internet that cleans the virus. McAfee's clean instructions are impossible to follow.

I generally am very cautious with incoming attachments. I usually delete .exe and similar files. I guess you can get caught off guard if the sender and message look legitimate.

At work they use Norton because of the automatic update. Maybe I need to switch at home.”

“I got two more of the emails today. They were entitled to make them look like legitimate email business or book offers. Very slimy.”

“The virus goes into your Outlook files and creates innocent looking subject names and sends them to people whose email addresses are on saved email messages. When you open the email they ask for your advice. As soon as you click the attachment, you have the virus. The attachment usually has a compound extension like .xxx.doc (xxx is some other extension).

It sucks.”

“Have been off line for three days now. Didn't want to even turn the computer on as long as we were infected. We're on a ten-year-old uninfected computer, with no current email addresses on it. Sircam went right by Mcaffee! We downloaded their instructions and found them impossible to follow, they didn't work anyway and left two files that were unrepairable, and ended up crashing the entire system. The folks at Mcaffee were a bunch of real a**holes, at $2.95 a minute, and absolutely zero help. Compaq is sending us a recovery disk which will restore the system AND delete the virus, As soon as we're up and running again, Mcaffee gets the heave-ho and it's off to Norton. Anybody finds out who started this Sircam crap, save me a piece of him!”

“I just got the virus sent to me again (which I didn't open) and McAfee didn't warn me. I get McAfee free, but am thinking of switching to Norton.

I did create an email filter that hopefully will send future incoming messages to trash.”

“Norton only works when you up date it when you should, every few days or every week. Mine didn't see the sircam comming and i got it. Had to take my computer in and get it de-bugged. Gateway did it for 45 bucks.”

“Make sure the auto-update feature is activated for Norton. That way it will update while you're online without having to do anything.”

“steve hiker, i think you can get a group to do a trail in Ark. Sounds like it anyway. I didn't have my automatic update activated and i went too long before updating, oh well, it could have been worst.”

“I got my Norton Anti-Virus set on auto update. It takes good care of my computer.
THANKS NORTON!!”

“We got the book offer yesterday, but it didn't have any attachments. Is it ok to open the email (my fiance already did) ?”

“Unless I am much mistook, opening the email is okay; it's the attached .EXE file you better stay away from. Check the links in my first post above.

Personally, I'd leave the email alone, too, LOL!”

“for a really good firewall get sygate firewall at sygate.com”

“Got our recovery disk today. Had to reboot from scratch. Lost everything that wasn't on floppy - all my fonts, graphics, software, addresses, gear sites, yadayada. What a royal pain. If they ever nab the originator of SirCam, that's a trial I wanna be at. Now we get to deal with McAfee over their gross inadequacies. All this while trying to get ready for the Shining Rock trip. I told my sweetie that if she ever opens another unknown attachment that I'd cut off her hands!”

“I used a filter with Eudora to send incoming SirCam emails to trash. The filter checks for one of the phrases of text that comes in the email. It worked. McAfee told me I had the infected file before I opened it. Hooray for something that worked.”

“By Bob Sullivan
Technology correspondent
MSNBC
Updated: 9:09 p.m. ET March 7, 2005
A spate of instant message worms released over the last few days has some antivirus researchers concerned: With e-mail viruses less effective than before, virus writers, they say, are now turning their attention to the popular — and not very secure — chat tools used by millions.

A worm named Kelvir made the rounds on Sunday, with several variants appearing almost immediately.

Kelvir is tricky, pasting a simple message in Microsoft's MSN Messenger chat tool, such as "lol! See it! You'll like it!" The worm then displays a link to a Web page infected with a Trojan horse. Users who click on the link are infected with the worm. Not only do they then send copies of the worm to fellow chatters, a Trojan horse is also installed on their systems.

The ploy is effective because it can appear in mid-conversation with another chatter, convincingly suggesting it's really from someone you are talking to.

"This is a fairly big deal," said John Sakoda, the chief technology officer at IMLogic, an instant message security firm. He said more than 10 percent of his firm's 400 clients reported seeing a variant of Kelvir in recent days.

None of the variants will cause a serious outbreak, antivirus firms say, because they involve two steps to infect users — they must see the file name, and then click on a Web site link. Once that Web site is removed from the Internet, the worm no longer operates, and all the Kelvir Web pages have been pulled down.

Still, researchers are worried that virus writers have taken a fancy to IM tools, and expect to see many more worms targeting the tools in the coming months. Already, there have been as many IM worms this year alone as there have been in all the years previous, said About.com antivirus guide Mary Landesman.

"The underlying point is instant message worms are gaining a lot of speed. There is a lot of activity right now," said Craig Schmugar, a virus researcher at McAfee.com. "There is definitely a shift in the attention of at least some virus authors."

Instant messaging is continuing its march toward ubiquity in the workplace -- and most often, employee use public tools from Microsoft, Yahoo, and America Online.

According to a recent study by the Ridicati Group, by 2008, 88 percent of workplace users will rely on a such a public network. That raises security concerns, because even interoffice messages are sent over the Internet, outside the control of network administrators. Interoffice e-mail is easier to contain.

"We're seeing people wake up to the fact that IM is everywhere, and virus writers and worm writers are waking up to the fact that it's a powerful means to propagate malicious code," Sakoda said.

So far, IM worms haven't risen to the level of a notorious virus like Code Red or LoveBug. But researchers say it's certainly possible -- particularly if virus writers find a way to make the program spread on its own, without requiring a recipient to click on a link. Symantec Corp. has done simulations suggesting entire corporations could become infected in less than a minute.

"In our annual Internet security threat report, we predicted this would be taking place, a rise in IM-based threats," said Symantec's Alfred Huger.

So far, Landesman said, Microsoft's MSN Messenger has been the most tempting target for virus writers. Of the 50 or so IM worms she's counted since 2001, about 40 have targeted Microsoft products. The others were evenly split between America Online's AIM and Yahoo Messenger. Sakoda said about two-thirds of the worms he's seen target Microsoft's tools. (MSN Messenger is targeted at home users; Windows Messenger at business users.)

"It just means that MSN and Windows Messenger are popular internationally, and most of these worms surface overseas first," Sakoda said.

For now, consumers who use the popular tools should know they are facing increased risks, Landesman said. The best thing to do is be extremely skeptical when clicking on links sent over instant message tools, even if they appear to be from people you know.

"You have to assume that links in IM are bad until proven otherwise," she said.”

“The bottom line here is that Internet Explorer or your default web browser has to open the malicious link, and not the IM client.

If Internet Explorer wasn't so quick to open every link you try to click on, we wouldn't have to worry about such things...”

“I like firefox.. i like firefox.. ;)”

“I've used Trend's PC Cillin for many years now & haven't been bothered by any virus.

I have used other firewall's that I liked, but PC cillins firewalls don't play well with others. I used to be able to shut them down.

It also has an adware scanner in addition to it's firewall & the BEST virus protection I have seen to date.

THey sold me on HOUSECALLS which is a free safe virus scanner that they perform on your computer from their mainframe. It found & removed (free) a virus that NO other program could locate or remove.”

“I've used Trend's PC Cillin for many years now & haven't been bothered by any virus.

I have used other firewall's that I liked, but PC cillins firewalls don't play well with others. I used to be able to shut them down.

It also has an adware scanner in addition to it's firewall & the BEST virus protection I have seen to date.

THey sold me on HOUSECALLS which is a free safe virus scanner that they perform on your computer from their mainframe. It found & removed (free) a virus that NO other program could locate or remove.”

“Did anyone else get a bunch of German spam over the weekend?

Guess what?: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=763294”

“tsk...tsk..I am still getting that crap.
It wasnt' me I swear!”

“Yes, it's going to servers that are already infested with some virus or other. I started getting it over the weekend on the company Outlook Express account. They tell me the corporate server is infested.

I have not opened any of those messages to see what is inside. Not planning to, either.

Somebody posted to another spam thread the other day about it.”

“Yeah, I got dozens per day when it first came out, but it is down to less than a half dozen per day. I usually delete such email without opening it, and I never open a link or an attachment unless it is something I specifically requested.”

“Spam filters.”

“What bacpac said.”

“I've been getting those messages also. All in German.

About 90% of my email gets diverted by filters these days. Sad state of affairs for such great technology.”