OT - Virus troubles (Mydoom)

[Sparks]

I know this is Off topic, bust as I am receiving a LOT of infected emails, I though I would just warn people ...

You may have heard about the current virus Mydoom that is doing the rounds

If not, please take note, it is a fast spreading virus!

Full information about it is here

you have anti-virus software, then I recommend you do a manual update ASAP to be sure you are protected - If you have no anti-virus software, you REALLY need some!!

You can get some for free from

is what I use and recommend)

If you are already running AVG (you will have "AVG 6.0 Anti-Virus System" in your main start menu) Either double-click on the 4 colour icon near your clock, or click on the AVG 6.0 Anti-Virus System in your start menu and select "AVG Control Center"

Once this is loaded, click the Update Manager tab; then press Update Now.

(You will of course need to be connected to the internet, if you are not, it should connect for you!)

Sparks...

[Grunff]

On that note, it's worth mentioning that the only sensible solution is to get an email account with server side virus and spam scanning. It will save you *a lot of* time and hassle.

[David Hearn]

Our email server (which I'm responsible for at work) is currently blocking the SCO worm at a rate of 10:1 compared to the Mydoom one yet I've not heard any warnings going out about the SCO one.

D

[Sparks]

Just had a look on the McAfee site (amongst others) and cant see it listed there!

what is the full name of that one?

Sparks...

[Neil Jones]

I use mailwasher, because I'd rather trust my own judgement than rely on an automated system. YMYV, of course

Neil

[Grunff]

I'd rather not spend half an hour a day manually filtering a 1000 emails when I can do it automatically! Never knowingly lost a genuine email.

[John Rumm]

Errrm ;-) think you will find the SCO one *is* MyDoom / Novarg

[Andrew Gabriel]

...or use an operating system which isn't designed to be susceptable to viruses.

[The Natural Philosopher]

readers should note that posting URLS like the above is often ised to propagte viruses.

Go to McAfee or other site, never to an unsolicted URL on Usenet.

This is one of several offial virus notification sites

[Sparks]

Having read the payload of Mydoom [again!], I see that now!

On the first system startup on February 1st or later, the worm changes its behavior from mass mailing to initiating a denial of service attack against the sco.com domain. This denial of service attack will stop on the first system startup of February 12th or later, and thereafter the worm's only behavior is to continue listening on TCP port 3127.

Sparks...

[Sparks]

FYI that tinyURL address goes to

(Which will wrap, hence the reason for using tinyURL!)

Sparks...

[Grunff]

We run our own set of scanners (3 of them in series!) for filtering our (and clients') email. Gets almost all viruses, and a high percentage of non-virus spam, without impeding the flow of genuine email.

[David Hemmings]

What do you use by the way ? i have been having problems with virgin recently and may be forced to move ISP. Shame really, virgin used to be very good, but all they send me is total shit auto response stuff now, nothing of any help at all.

[David Hemmings]

which would that be, all OS are susceptible just MS is a massive target (with dubious security).

Linux has been showing a relatively large increase in attacks recently, obviously as it becomes more popular.

[Neil Jones]

If I got that much spam I'd probably do the same.

[Andy Luckman (AJL Electronics)]

One whose OS is in ROM?

[Dave Plowman]

Heh heh. Trouble is the time needed to download them if you don't have some blocking system. I've got a spam filter which deletes at the server, but keeping it up to date is a PITA. So I additionally have a file size limit set on the mail fetcher - it will stop at over 30k, and ask if I want to delete or just download the header etc. If I'm not in attendance it just leaves any mail above the limit on the server until next time.

[The Natural Philosopher]

No. That is not enough either. You don't need to patchteh OS to get a virus installed. Any system that can run code that is downloaded from the net is potentially insecure.

>

[Witchy]

Not if it's in ROM - *read only* memory. You might be able to download to a local storage device but any attempts to fiddle with the OS won't work.

-- cheers,

witchy/binarydinosaurs

[Sparks]

True, but surely such a system would need some RAM, therefore the virus could be loaded in there!

Of course on a reboot it would be gone, but the virus could infect the system while it is on!

Sparks...