OT: Beware - a whole lot of viruses going around today

Nick, that started with me yesterday afternoon, same format, phoney MS updates and bounced email messages. I was getting 10-15 every couple of minutes. Fortunatly I use an "Email" alias system, so I just turned the address associated with "rec.crafts.woodturning" off, and created a new alias, problem solved, at least until they spyder up my new address.

James Barley

I have the same thing going on. My ISP says the attacks are coming from hacker tools that search for IP address's(DSL) without a firewall. I recently swithched to DSL and did not know that I should have a firewall(additional software). My ISP are sending me information on a shareware firewall application.

Nick Todd

If you are running xp, it has a fire wall. And, believe it or not, it actually works.

Bill

Got the same thing going on. Please pass on info you get on shareware firewall. Thanks, Don

Hey Nick,

Thanks for the information. I've been getting about one message every

8 to 10 minutes, almost 100 a day, purporting to come from Microsoft. I too have a Mac, but the mail box gets overloaded.

For those of you who don't know about xp's firewall... I believe that the default for it may be 'off' -- after all, we are talking about Microsoft.

To set or check it...

Start/Control Panel/Network Connections/yournetworkconnection

On the General tab, click Properties. Then click Advanced (a firewall, advanced? What a joke).

Make sure that "Protect my computer..." is clicked.

Then click "Settings"

Make sure that all boxes are unchecked unless you really want others to access your machine for that particular service.

Then do the usual bunch of 'ok's.

As I recall, when SBC's dsl software installed itself on my machine, it turned off the firewall which I had so carefully turned on. So, it is worth a look.

This is a start...

MS ought to be taken out in the alley and shot for its cavalier disregard for their customers' security. I hope that somebody starts a class action to recover the cost of dealing with their gross negligence.

Bill

Bill, I'm running XP with firewall and AVG but I use hotmail and their spam controls. None have got through but I've dumped my "junk mail" 4 times so far. About 50 e-mails each time with 156 kb attachements. I don't open any e-mail just dump the headers.

I have been running the freebie Zone Alarm firewall for most of the year. The program shows that it blocked 206150 intrusions of which

59701 have been high rated.

Go to

and work your way through some bs and you will eventually be able to download the freebie.

I also have a spy program runn> Got the same thing going on.

Nick:

So far, I've been getting a couple of hundred a day over the past few days. I run a firewall and virus scanner (and am connected via a dialup), so any sent payloads are deleted, and I'm not stupid enough to try and download anything that is sent as a link, like the supposed Microsoft messages. I've been getting at least five flavors: Newest Critical Update, Current INternet Security Update, Newest Net Security Update, Newest Microsoft Pack, and Network Update.... There may be other variations, but that's all I remember right now.

There's also a whole bunch of failed delivery messages, and numerous filter announcements that indicate somebody tried to send me a virus laden message that some or other server in the path deleted.... I also get a couple of trojan or back door attempts a day, so I guess I'm fairly popular with the email address harvesters, and I suspect someone is hitting most of the ip addresses of my local isp pretty regularly.

I guess it's the early fall virus season....

Good Luck and keep your firewall and virus scanners updated!

Thanks

--Rick

Nick Silva wrote:

I'm currently getting about 200/hr to my balderstone.ca domain. They're being caught at the server and isolated by Spam Assassin but I still have to go in every few hours and clear the queue.

I'm also on a Mac, so there's no risk of being infected, but damn that damned Microsoft and the damned security damned holes in their damned operating systems that they damned well know about but damnded well won't damned fix.

djb

yes!

(also a Mac owner with one email every 8 minutes....)

I'm running Win XP, latest maintenance, and a hardware firewall. The junk is still getting through, but the viruses are blocked by the ISP. Good idea to have the firewall, but it won't stop the spam.

Its nice to see that i am not alone. I have been getting these messages for the past two days and they seem to go right through my Norton firewall.

I have received notices of attacks for the past week that have been blocked, but these email get through. I too spend a lot of time deleting. I tried using the "Block Sender" button, but that does not seem to be a effective way to stop them.

Hope they have less patience than I and just go away.

I just finished running a virus check (5 hours 23 minutes) everything in fine. However, the antivirus 2003 Norton intercepted and quarantined 179 of Microsoft attachments having WormAutomat. AHB. The attacks are taking place with the Email received by Outlook Express ME. This could be called the 9

11 of Microsoft. If the originator or originators succeeds they could easily disable the internet world wide.

I'm still seeing about 50/hour/mail account at my balderstone.ca domain.

I gather this one is hitting usenet posters particularly hard.

djb

I just logged in to the account I use for posting to public boards - I only had 311 messages, but I seldom post. I think the frequency of posting is determining how bad the attack is to you, I think each post you have made in the recent past may be getting you 40-50 attacks.

Thanks Microsoft

Dave Balderst> >

one reason to NEVER use a valid return address on USENET postings is to avoid spam, and these virii are a good example of spam - if you want your mail address seen, put it in the body of the message but leave a space or something so it can't be read automatically by a machine - for example "me at myisp.com" would mess up the machines that read for addresses, spelling out "dot" would be better yet.

As seen below in my sig line. I can attest that this is a very effective practice. The amount of spam I get on this account is astonishingly low; I can still count on the fingers of one hand, the number of virus emails I've gotten in the recent storm.

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)

Excuse my ignorance on this, but can't they get your proper email address from the "To" line?