Based on my inbox, I see that dozens of regular posters here, as well as BJF Online, have been infected with the following virus:
http://[email protected]
By not using the proper virus protection software you are putting yourself and other advantage players at risk.
If you haven't already, please read my first two editions of "Online Security for Advantage Players" in last two issues of Blackjack Forum.
V
I got an e-mail today from my Norton AntiVirus 2002, telling me that a message I had sent (didn't
send it!!) had been quarantined because it contained the virus you mention.
I checked my quarantine box; it was empty. I don't know the person to whom I was supposed to have sent something.
Really don't understand what's going on. But, I have anti-virus software and didn't open any e-mail attachments, so what's going on?
Don
A couple of versions of the virus that I have seen actually masquerade as anti-virus programs!
One quick way that I have for spotting a virus is to look at the size of the e-mail. A text message will only be 1 or 2 KB in size, HTML-encoded messages may be 5-20 KB. However, the virus-laden emails seem to run 120--130 KB.
Most e-mail clients can be set to display the message size. If you get a big one, just say, "delete."
Even better, many e-mail clients can be set to not download messages over a certain size. Set it for about 25KB and you should avoid most of the viruses.
Of course, you'll also miss out when Aunt Martha sends you a large, high-resolution .jpeg image of her poodle. :-)
> One quick way that I have for spotting a
> virus is to look at the size of the e-mail.
> A text message will only be 1 or 2 KB in
> size, HTML-encoded messages may be 5-20 KB.
> However, the virus-laden emails seem to run
> 120--130 KB
Mine is 1725 bytes. In fact, I got two. The second is 1705 bytes. I deleted both of them and didn't download anything.
Don
> Most e-mail clients can be set to display
> the message size. If you get a big one, just
> say, "delete."
> Even better, many e-mail clients can be set
> to not download messages over a certain
> size. Set it for about 25KB and you should
> avoid most of the viruses.
> Of course, you'll also miss out when Aunt
> Martha sends you a large, high-resolution
> .jpeg image of her poodle. :-)
> Mine is 1725 bytes. In fact, I got two. The
> second is 1705 bytes. I deleted both of them
> and didn't download anything.
Those are just straight text e-mails. It would take one helluva programmer to create something dangerous that only used 1725 bytes!
Of course, watch out for attachments.
> Of course, watch out for attachments.
There WERE attachments. I didn't open them, because I first went to my Norton AntiVirus, looked at the quarantine, and there were NO files in it!
Don
> There WERE attachments. I didn't open them,
> because I first went to my Norton AntiVirus,
> looked at the quarantine, and there were NO
> files in it!
Smart move. Just be sure to update the anti-virus software on a very frequent basis (or set it to do so automatically), and remember that no anti-virus software is 100% effective, as new viruses pop up every day. One virus even exploited a security hole in the Norton Anti-virus program! (Which has since been fixed.)
Since many viruses exploit security holes in Outlook/Outlook Express, and send out the virus to everyone in the address book, a familiar "from" address is no guarantee that the attachment is not a virus.
I automatically delete all attachments to e-mail, unless I have specifically asked someone to send me something.
Of course, this means that I may miss out on some cute little novelty programs being forwarded around (not to mention the aforementioned Aunt Martha's poodle pix), but I can live with that.
This virus will infect your system if it appears in the view section of your outlook email... you do not need to open an email with it to get infected. It will erase your hard disk on (I think) the trigger dates Sept. 20 and Mar. 20.
The local computer shop was full of machines that got klezzed on Mar. 20.
--Mayor
> I got an e-mail today from my Norton
> AntiVirus 2002, telling me that a message I
> had sent (didn't
> send it!!) had been quarantined because it
> contained the virus you mention.
People can spoof email to make it appear to come from anyone. This happened to me recently. Not only was someone sending email to people with this virus, he was using my own mail server to send the mail through! This is what may be happening to you as well. I had to change the security settings on my mail server to disallow relaying completely and only allow mail to flow through that originated from computers within my internal network. This has stopped the spreading of this virus as appearing from me.
Let me know if you need any more info about protecting your mail server from unwanted use.
-Carl
> People can spoof email to make it appear to
> come from anyone.
Very true. I recently received a virus (a real one!) that appeared to be from a well-known blackjack website. They knew nothing about it.
BTW, it's great to see you posting here.
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