Hermann - Thanks for you comments, but I think the safest thing at the
moment would be just to moderate the list. I could say to people that they
should take asreml out of their address books, and never to send attachments
to the list, but I have no way of telling whether everyone has done that or
not. So, I will moderate the list for the moment - it is not too onerous,
because there are not so many messages.
Regards, Andrew
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Hermann Balde [mailto:hermannbalde@yahoo.com]
> Sent: Monday, 23 July 2001 1:51 AM
> To: Andrew Swan
> Subject: Re: Virus - please read
>
>
> Dear Andrew,
>
> The posibility of being infected with an e-mail virus I think is of lesser
> importance as the usefulness of the e-mail. All attachement virus
> and worms
> spread themselves owing to the address book of each e-mail program (most
> commonly Outlook). So I think it could be a good idea to require
> to all of us
> who use ASREML to delete the ASREML mailing address from our
> address books, in
> order to minimize the posibilty of "infect" and be infected
> through the mailing
> list.
>
> Hermann Balde
> Forest Engineer
> Santiago - Chile
>
>
> Andrew Swan wrote:
>
> > 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
> >
> > --
> > Asreml mailinglist archive:
> http://www.chiswick.anprod.csiro.au/lists/asreml
>
> --
> Hermann Balde
> hermannbalde@yahoo.com
>
>
>
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