What You DON'T Want for Christmas

[socalgal]

From the hard copy of NetworkWorld (Dec.6, 1999) and the e-version.

http://www.nwfusion.com/news/1999/1206y2k.html

Listed are only some of the major viruses and when they are expected to strike. The biggest worry comes from email attachments and e-greeting cards.

Christmas Day
Sarampo
W97M/Opey.A
W97M/Opey.C
W32/Kriz
New Year's Eve
Chinese Fish
W97M/Caligula.A
W97M/Chack.H
W97M/Chantal
New Year's Day, 2000
Chinese Fish
November_17th.800.A
W97M/Maker.A
W97M/Chantal
Jan. 3, 2000
Helper.F
Buero
Alien.H
Jan. 4, 2000
Helper.D
Buero
Pathogen

Please, keep your virus definitions up-to-date and make sure you have the latest scan managers, inline patches and software upgrades for your AV programs.

I don't wish for anyone to come back during/after the holidays saying they caught a virus.

Dang! keyboard http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by socalgal (edited 12-06-1999).]

[Chainsaw]

Thanks for the heads-up SG. Just had a friend get a nasty HDD crasher from an attachment to an e-mail. It pays to be aware out there. I think we're still fairly save opening the "snail" mail cards though.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all,

........CHNsaw

[This message has been edited by Chainsaw (edited 12-06-1999).]

[welsh wizard]

Thanks Socalgal, with all this rubbish flying around I think I'll just power down and remove all batts till mid Jan and run some Old Test sys till then so I can get best anti virus installed to check out the sys's.
I thought at first you wanted to know what we all really did want for Xmas, apart from peace and quite and good will to all I can't really think of any things, unless you know of some one that can knock 30 years off the ageing clock we all have http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif
WW

[pickel]

I understand about the Email attachments, but
what gives on the Christmas cards? How do you avoid opening them, or even getting them? My
virus protector sends my attachments and downloads to my zip drive where I can scan them before I enter tnem in my computer.. Is this enough protection. Set me straight...
Thanks Socalgal http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

the pickel

[Apostle 83]

Hmm... I got my first virus today. Caught it w/ norton though, fixed it. Kinda funny, the Local Comp store owner (small chain, as soon as I have my liscence, I get job as systems installation man http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif )needed to read something off a zip drive, (they have one at the store in the town he lives, just not at this new one)and transfer it to floppy, then to cd. Turns out it was a 14 meg, so it wouldn't fit floppy... I go, "I have a burner." He goes, "k, ill give you our fee money if you'll burn it." I started the procedure, norton pops up, and it turns out the directory was infected with W97M.Ethan.A virus. Very rare, according to my virus defs, and I don't think it even does much harm.

BUT WE ALWAYS REMEMBER OUR FIRST.

[socalgal]

pickel - re your question on the e-greetings. From the article from the above link:

Electronic greeting cards are a worry because they are prime candidates for carrying viruses. The greetings also can cripple e-mail servers because they are so large - up to 5M bytes - and can be broadcast around a network.

Not sure about exactly why or what that means, other than the size part. Perhaps because they can also be opened as attachments? Maybe someone can set us straight.

I sure do remember my "first". A W97M virus I brought home on a floppy from work! Norton AV picked up mine also. My one and (thank goodness) only. *knockknock*

I trust my up-to-the-minute Norton AV scans on the attachments... to a point. Nothing is 100%.


[This message has been edited by socalgal (edited 12-06-1999).]

[welsh wizard]

Socalgal a local rag downunder just did a review of AV software, Macaffee, Norton and so on about 8 diff AV's Norton came out best, but only stopped 98.2% of the viruses thrown at it, these guys got viruses from Norton ect, turns out these guy don't just write AV software but write it viruses themselve to test if they can stop it, it would apear that if they had a disgruntled employee s/he could release total mayhem loose http://www.sysopt.com/forum/frown.gif
WW

[This message has been edited by welsh wizard (edited 12-07-1999).]

[U-96]

I think it's rather ironic that if any computer-related Y2K problems impact us globally, that it was because our PCs worked correctly and executed malicious code on 1 Jan 2000.

A suggestion for the Sysopt writers (okay, I know time is short!) - perhaps an article on Y2K preventative and curative tips and commonsense would be a good idea. Failing that, perhaps someone informed enough would like to start a thread?

U-96