VirusFest 2004

Post by **Dale** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 7:27 pm

Today alone I had 12 copies of the email worm sent to me out of a total of 39 emails I received today.

Dale

glauber · Post by **glauber** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 7:45 pm

That's what you get for being so popular.

McHaffie · Post by **McHaffie** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 8:22 pm

Were they unintentional attatchments by innocent welldoers? Friends sending emails (likely unbeknownst by them)? Or were they the infamous "unknown" emails ... the ones with the familiar subject headers, but unfamiliar email addresses?

Inquistive Minds want to know!!!

i.e. weird people who have been techs for over 10 years like to know.

OutOfBreath · Post by **OutOfBreath** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 8:01 am

Anybody whose e-mail address is in many address books tends to see a lot of copies of viruses and trojans. In the last two days I've received probably thirty copies of the darn thing. So people who run extremely popular websites, like Dale and I

get flooded with the darn things.

The really wierd thing is that this time I've received four or five copies for addresses I know for a fact don't exist because they are for my domain but are addresses I haven't ever used. Now, anything at my domain that isn't otherwise defined gets forwarded to me (you could write to "heyyoustupidjerk at guitarnuts dot com" and I'd get it), but there is no reason for anyone to have ever sent email to "sarah at guitarnuts dot com" and such!

McHaffie · Post by **McHaffie** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 10:34 am

Yep, that's what I was curious about. Most of the time viruses simply propogate themselves by ripping through a persons address book and happily sending themselves off to everyone there, but lately there's been the nifty advent of the 'anyonewithafunkydoodaname@yourdomain.com' I've noticed.... more than usual. Many of my regular contacts have reported it to me anyway. I was curious if Dale was receiving the later or not. Sorry to hear you have too! Bummer. Pain in the butt!

Fortunately I use Linux, so I don't have an issue other than the annoying emails themselves which I receive from time to time.

People are interesting creatures. Gotta have something to do with your time I guess. Wreaking havoc with others must be extremely gratifying somehow I suppose.

Take care,
John

RonKiley · Post by **RonKiley** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 10:52 am

I received one today that was new to me. It said email returned. Undeliverable. Reason: then an address I have never seen and certainly didn't originate from my address. Then it said click on the link below for details. I deleted it and then permanently deleted it.

Ron

fiddling_tenor · Post by **fiddling_tenor** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 10:55 am

Macs are great! Macs are great! Macs are great! Macs are great! Macs are great! Macs are great! Macs are great! Macs are great! Macs are great! Macs are great! Macs are great! Macs are great! Macs are great! Macs are great!

Just repeat the mantra...

OutOfBreath · Post by **OutOfBreath** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 11:36 am

Macs are overpriced! Macs are overpriced! Macs are...

Seriously, I don't know what the big deal is. I've been online from home since about 1991 and from work long before that -- using a PC and Windoze at home all that time and for the last 7 years or so at work. In all that time I have never been infected by a virus or trojan at home and I've been infected exactly one time at work by a spyware program (I think somebody else around here must have used my computer).

If you are going to be dumb enough to open an attachment on a message that says, for example, that it is a returned message you never sent, well, don't come crying to me

Also, Macs aren't immune to viruses, and neither is Linux (which I've used and actually prefer to Windoze, BTW) -- there just aren't enough of either in use to make it worth a virus pusher's time.

Wombat · Post by **Wombat** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 12:10 pm

I have a Mac at work and one at home. I still receive these things by the truck load. I must be popular too.

Actually, they are being sent from fake addresses generated in fairly random ways I think as well as real addresses, 'stolen' for the purpose. I've received several copies purporting to be from me. I've also received many copies from people who don't exist or, if they do, have a different address. I think that they take typical email addresses, say an address type common to all people at a certain university, and then simply generate fake names that otherwise fit the pattern. Suppose someone has an address like andrewa@uop.blah blah, the virus disseminators will generate mail from andrewb@uop.balh blah, andrewc and so on.

Darwin · Post by **Darwin** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 12:33 pm

I typically get about 5-10 legitimate emails per day and about 250-300 spams and virus/trojan mails. Even though it greatly reduces my potential software customer base, sometimes I am glad that the Mac is not very popular.

tomcat · Post by **tomcat** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 12:37 pm

ronkiley, i got that same one yesterday....actually i didn't open it to find out if it was the same one, but it sure matched your description!

fancypiper · Post by **fancypiper** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 2:10 pm

If only Windows users knew about Outlook Express (Outlook Depressed is a better name) and would simply download Peagasus Mail or some similar e-mail client.

No matter how much it is in the news, it never sinks in, just like pouring water onto a penguin's back.

Thank goodness for the zero cost operating system Linux which runs on almost any computer platform.

How anyone lives without SpamAssassin with todays e-mails is beyond me.

RonKiley · Post by **RonKiley** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 2:30 pm

BTW I worked in the computer field most of my life. Some of those early ones were electro-mechanical. I have used CPM which, BG used to fashion DOS, Unix, several other -nixes, DOS and all of the Windows versions. I worked with MACs also. I prefer PCs with Win XP over the others. Nothing wrong with the others. They have their good points and their troubles too. I also prefer to roll my own when it comes to systems.

John, I don't see how you can get by with no spyware on your system. There are whistle related sites that add spy cookies to your system. I run spybot at least every other day. I find a few cookies every time such as doubleclick. I should put a rule in my system to block them but I haven't done it yet.

It seems that these idiots keep finding new ways to try and sucker us in. They should have their bits scrambled and spread over the cess pool.

Ron

McHaffie · Post by **McHaffie** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 5:35 pm

I agree... scrambled they should be!! on the side.. with toast!!

I've been dinking around with computers since the days of the Timex Sinclair 1000

and everything in between up to now and all who have stated are right... NOTHING is entirely immune, but I will take one last shot before I shut up....

Of all the YEARS I've had to work on M$ products... not just the operating systems, but BackOffice, Office, SQL, and then let's go on to AS/400 (hell hath no fury like an AS/400 server scorned), Novell, on and on the list goes.

For many many newbies and for the 'power users' I'm sorry but pick your distribution and Linux is just pretty slick and inherently stable. M$ pales by comparrison... whether it be price or otherwise.

On the flip-side... one OS most people have never heard of, and will most likely never make it past certain applications, is QNX. Very nifty and TIGHT little OS. TINY TINY TINY operating system that has everything you need to create a complete server / workstation with any major software needed. Cool.

Ok, I'm done

Bye.

AngeloMeola · Post by **AngeloMeola** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 6:56 pm

McHaffie wrote: I've been dinking around with computers since the days of the Timex Sinclair 1000

I feel like a dinosauer since the first computer I worked with was an IBM 360 using punch cards.
Angelo