steve,
William didn't say where he got the virus from, just that he had it.
The problem with many of these viruses or worms is that they open IP
ports on your computer which are then used to install other software
that compromise your system's security and may expose sensitive
information you keep on the computer or others in a local network.
Removing the virus and any other stuff they may have installed has to be
done exactly as described by the security websites' procedures,
otherwise leaving one port open will just result in your machine being
corrupted all over again.
Netscape doesn't intrinsically protect you from viruses. Having the
previewer helps, but only if you take the time and effort to critically
examine the message headers, subject, and attachments to make sure
they're legitimate. For people that are less technologically savvy, it's
better to invest in a reputable anti-virus software package and make
sure it's set up so that it keeps itself up to date.
Microsoft's answer to virus problems (entering through its email
application Outlook or Outlook Express) was to automatically delete any
executable file from the incoming mail attachments. As with many of M$'s
"fixes" this is a poor and naive strategy because firstly it's unduly
restrictive to those of us that do occasionally need to send executable
content to other people, and secondly because it's easily circumvented
by using a different filename extension, so that it slips through their
tests. This virus is a good example: they use a .ZIP extension
(indicating a compressed file) and it's probably marked as a
self-extracting file so that the pkzip utility will execute (run) it
rather than decompressing the data stored in the file. Microsoft's
answer to this will probably be to disallow zip files from getting
through as well, which will just further inconvenience legitimate users
and present the virus writers with another easily-surmounted challenge.
The only answer to virus propagation is diligence on the part of the
user - don't expect your mail program to do the work for you.
Best regards,
Theo
Steve Laifman wrote:
> William,
>
> If you received the attached message that you sent with your message,
> with the note
>
> |> [demime 0.99d.1 removed an attachment of type
> |> application/x-zip-compressed which had a name of your_details.zip]
>
> Then either the auto.team.net server deleted the virus, and let you
> know it USED to be attached, or your ISP scanned your incoming mail,
> detected the virus, and deleted it, substituting the message.
>
> auto.team.net (our "List") will not accept, nor forward attachments,
> or HTML code, so it is extremely doubtful they even accepted it to
> look at, or forward. Your Genelogic.com may do this often with
> incoming mail, my ISP does.
>
> There are viruses which infect Windows computers, mostly through
> Internet Explorer, and insert viruses. This can, be designed to go
> through an individual's address book and send messages to anyone
> listed, FROM anyone listed -- not necessarily the infected one. Real
> pain, and difficult to trace.
>
> I, personally, use Netscape's latest 7.x browser/mail system. I find
> it far superior to the MS offering, but a bit slower in initial
> loading, as it is CRAMMED with great new features and loads all your
> sent/saved mail files so they are instantly available. One is the
> "partial" downloading of a message. Just the header, maybe a word or
> two. Setable in "preferences". That way you can look at the header
> (or preferably the expanded header) to see if there are strange
> addresses, senders, etc. Takes a little practice, but there are sites
> to tell you what to look for.
>
> These can then be deleted from the ISP server, never get into your
> computer, and those you can recognize are GONE!
>
> Give the new Netscape a try. It is free. You can get AOL Instant
> Messenger FREE. When it installs, if does NOT change your current
> browser, unless specifically instructed, but DOES bring over all your
> "Favorites" (bookmarks), contacts, addresses, etc. ready to rock and
> roll.
>
> Steve
>
> Steve
>
>
>
> William van Zwanenberg wrote:
>
>> I've got a copy of this too unfortunately.
>>
>> Anybody know the best method to get rid of it?
>>
>>
>> |-----Original Message-----
>> |From: owner-tigers@autox.team.net
>> |[mailto:owner-tigers@autox.team.net] On Behalf Of Theo Smit
>> |Sent: 04 July 2003 05:39
>> |To: jparlanti@genelogic.com
>> |Cc: tigers@autox.team.net
>> |Subject: Re: Movie
>> |
>> |
>> |Joe, you've got a virus...
>> |
>> |jparlanti@genelogic.com wrote:
>> |
>> |> Please see the attached zip file for details.
>> |>
>> |> [demime 0.99d.1 removed an attachment of type
>> |> application/x-zip-compressed which had a name of
>> your_details.zip]
>> |
>>
>>
> --
>
> Steve Laifman
> Editor
> http://www.TigersUnited.com
|