Friends,
I've appended an update on the state of affairs here at Carnegie Mellon
regarding yesterday's virus.
I include the (conservative) official advice, below, to give you a
reference point for what counts as "safe e-intercourse" hereabouts.
You can get some additional calibration on the general level of
risk-aversion at CMU from the fact that my 69 2L is the oldest daily-driver
I see by, perhaps, 15 years.
Best to all,
Teddy
Pgh PA
OROC
---------------------------
>Date: Friday, May 05, 2000 12:05 PM -0400
>From: John Lerchey <lerchey+@CMU.EDU>
>To: RBBs <restrictbb+official.computing-news@andrew.cmu.edu>
>Subject: I LOVE YOU virus update
>
>As most you know by now, the "ILOVEYOU" or "Love Bug" virus has hit the world
>pretty hard. Fortunately, at CMU, most of our population do not use Outlook
>as their primary mail program, and many of us are appropriately hesitant
>about opening attachements that we were not expecting. While CMU was not
>impacted as greatly as many other sites (check your favorite news source
>and you are likely to see something about this), we were not completely
>immune from damage.
>
>These types of "virus" programs have been targeted over the last year or so
>primarily against MicroSoft operating systems and communications packages
>(outlook, outlook express, exchange, shared folders, etc.). This is
>fortunate for CMU because of our platform diversity and the fact that
>many
>of us who use PCs do not use the communications options that the viruses
>tend to infect.
>
>Sadly, the ILOVEYOU virus is already mutating. It is now being sent to
>email accounts with new subject lines ("FW: JOKE FOR YOU FROM...", "VERY
>FUNNY!", "NOT FUN NY!") which will most likely continue to change over
>time.
>
>Computing Services recommends the following actions in order to minimize
>future impacts from these virus programs:
>
>1) If you receive any enclosure that you were not expecting, check to see if
>it contains a file with ".vbs" in the name before you open it. If it does,
>it is most likely a virus and should be deleted.
>
>2) If you receive an enclosure from someone you don't know, chances are that
>it's a virus, and should be deleted immediately.
>
>3) If you receive an enclosure that you were not expecting, but it comes from
>someone you know or trust, contact them before you open it to verify
>that they actually intended to send it to you. Because the virus uses
>Outlook address books, it may appear to be from a friend or colleague.
>If they did not send you a legitimate enclosure, delete it immediately.
>
>4) Regularly use Norton Anti-Virus (available on softdist) and frequently
>update the virus descriptions file by using the "LiveUpdate" option.
>
>We hope that these steps will help to keep your computer safe from harm.
>
>Any questions or comments should be sent to advisor+@andrew.cmu.edu, or
>should be directed to the Computing Services Help Center at x8-HELP.
>
>John K. Lerchey
>Computing Services
>Carnegie Mellon University
>
>
>---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
>
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