Dear All - I am going to change the list to be fully moderated in response
to the virus.
Here is some information on the virus from cnet:
"update Security experts warned Friday of a fast-spreading new worm
that could delete files and fill up the hard drives of infected
computers.
The worm, "W32.Sircam" or "SirCam," arrives attached to an e-mail
message with a randomly chosen subject line, according to a report
prepared by the AntiVirus Research Center of software maker
Symantec. The body of the message is also randomly chosen, although
the first and last lines are always "Hi! How are you?" and "See you
later. Thanks" in the English version of the message and "Hola como
estas?" and "Nos vemos pronto, gracias" in the Spanish version.
Once activated, the virus sends copies of itself to all e-mail
addresses in the computer's Microsoft Outlook address book. The sent
e-mail message also includes a randomly chosen document from the
infected computer.
The worm has several unusual aspects, according to Symantec, including
the fact that it resides in the recycle bin of the infected PC, where
people may not think to search for it.
It also can perform several destructive acts based on a combination of
arcane PC settings and chance. If the infected PC uses the European
date format (day/month/year), for example, there is a 1-in-20 chance
that the worm will delete all files and folders on the hard drive on
Oct. 16.
The worm is also "network aware," Symantec reported, meaning it will
search for network resources and attempt to propagate itself to
attached systems.
Symantec's AntiVirus Research Center classified the worm as a
"severe" threat. It said several hundred computers at a handful of
sites had been infected with the worm as of Thursday evening.
Antivirus-software maker McAfee classified the worm as a "medium" risk
and said 1,418 infected files had been reported in the last 30 days.
"I think this is going to keep going at least for the next week," said
Alex Shipp, anti-virus researcher for e-mail-service firm
MessageLabs. "The fact that it does have different subject lines and
different file names will help it grow."
So far, the growth has been slow but sure, he said. On Wednesday, the
company had encountered only a handful of virus-infected e-mails every
hour. As of late Friday, however, there were nearly 100 every hour."
--
Andrew Swan
CSIRO Livestock Industries
Locked Bag 1
Armidale NSW 2350
AUSTRALIA
phone: 02 6776 1377
fax: 02 6776 1333
email: andrew.swan@li.csiro.au
--
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