This time, there's a REAL Net Virus warning...
March 27, 1999 E-Mail Virus Spreads on Internet, Could Tie Up Traffic if Unstopped By MARK BOSLET Dow Jones Newswires PALO ALTO, Calif. -- A computer virus that spread quickly across the Internet on Friday afternoon shut down e-mail servers at some companies and overloaded others with infected e-mail, industry executives said. Some executives fear the virus, which is dubbed Melissa and which preys on Microsoft Corp.'s Word software, could tie up traffic on the Internet on Monday if it is unstopped. The virus enters a computer in an e-mail message labeled "Important Message From." The message also includes the apparent sender's name. Melissa replicates itself when a computer user opens the e-mail and a Word-based attachment it contains. Once open and active, the virus sends infected e-mail to 50 new recipients it finds in the computer owner's address book. The virus shut down e-mail servers at Microsoft late Friday and hampered operations at other companies, such as Lucent Technologies Inc. said Eric Allman, chief technology officer at Send Mail Inc. Send Mail makes e-mail routing software used widely on the Internet. Representatives from Microsoft and Lucent could not be reached for comment. The body of the infected e-mail document reads: "Here's the document you asked for. Don't show it to anyone else." Mr. Allman said Send Mail came up with a program to prevent the virus' spread. It simply identifies an e-mail with the label "Important Message From" and returns it to the sender. The program is available for download from the Send Mail website. "Monday could be seriously painful for the Internet" if lots of users open and read e-mail messages infected with Melissa, Mr. Allman said. Copyright © 1999 Dow Jones Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Re: This time, there's a REAL Net Virus warning...
Well, sure -- there ARE real computer viruses. Still, you can't get 'em (and that goes for this Melissa virus) by opening plain ol' email. You can only get 'em by opening attached files (like the Word file attachment that's spreading the Melissa virus). In other words, NEVER open an attached file (unless it's from a source you trust), and you'll never have to worry about gettin' computer viruses by using email.--don
Re: This time, there's a REAL Net Virus warning...
On Sat, 27 Mar 1999, Don Yates wrote: Well, sure -- there ARE real computer viruses. Still, you can't get 'em (and that goes for this Melissa virus) by opening plain ol' email. You can only get 'em by opening attached files (like the Word file attachment that's spreading the Melissa virus). In other words, NEVER open an attached file (unless it's from a source you trust), and you'll never have to worry about gettin' computer viruses by using email.--don Ah, but that's the beauty of this particular virus - once it's in place, it propagates itself to people known to the owner of the computer it's infected. (The information I've seen so far suggests that it raids the address books of email programs, but it's possible that it uses other methods.) Thus, one has to be a little more careful than usual. If I saw a message from a coworker with an attachment claiming to be a document I requested, I might get infected- if: - I wasn't healthily paranoid about viruses and attachments; - I didn't scan downloaded attachments before opening them with their utility; - I didn't use a Macintosh. (Bwahahahahahaha! Not to start a platform war here, but I'm very happy that the vast majority of the world's bitter, alienated coders with a chip on their shoulder use Intel iron...) I think 'healthily paranoid' should be the watchword. Don't open documents directly out of your email program- save them to your disk and scan them first, using a frequently-updated virus utility. Proud proponent of seatbelts, condoms, firewalls, and virus scanners, Tom
Re: This time, there's a REAL Net Virus warning...
Unfortunately, this isn't completely true anymore now that alot of readers can read html - which also means some mail clients can read java and javascript in your client or (sometimes) a mail client can launch java or some other application automatically. As mail clients get more sophisticated, more dangers loom. But if your an old technofart and use dumb text readers like pine or elm, then you have no wories. BUT if you use Outlook Express or Communicator, there's a chance (and will be moreso in the future) of carrying some real viruses. Still, the main email rule is if you don't know what an attachment is on an email don't open it and you likely won't get a virus. -ldk -Original Message- From: Don Yates [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: passenger side [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Saturday, March 27, 1999 4:22 PM Subject: Re: This time, there's a REAL Net Virus warning... Well, sure -- there ARE real computer viruses. Still, you can't get 'em (and that goes for this Melissa virus) by opening plain ol' email. You can only get 'em by opening attached files (like the Word file attachment that's spreading the Melissa virus). In other words, NEVER open an attached file (unless it's from a source you trust), and you'll never have to worry about gettin' computer viruses by using email.--don
