PLEASE FEEL FREE TO PASS THIS ON.
From: Marshall Barry, IBECC Email: MBarry at IBECC.Org Web: www.IBECC.Org Phone: +1-719-685-nnnn Update: 2000/May/08 - 06:30 AM - Denver, CO
For more info please contact IBECC - IBECC@IBECC.Org Or your local, friendly, antivirus crews including (but not limited to): McAfee, Norton, Trend, etc... (Their websites are still mostly jammed)
IBECC Official "Quote of the Worm":
"Y2K being a 'dud' may have lulled many of us into a false, warm, sense of security. 'LOVE' is one of the scenarios that people were worried about for 2000. It just took a couple of months longer to happen," said Michelle Weisblat, President of IBECC. She continued, "Backup early and often - you can never have too many backups, just too few! If you haven't been infected by the 'LOVE WORM', it's not too late to backup and protect your system and your data!"
Welcome to the latest update - hopefully with a voice of sanity.
If you miss (have missed) an update (this is #3 in a hopefully short series), please let us know and we'll be happy to forward it to you.
BEFORE I get into the rest of this message, note that once you have run the "worm" (it's NOT a virus by definition - it does NOT infect files - it replaces them and sends itself on), you are "infected" and there is NO TRIVIAL or SIMPLE way to UNINFECT YOURSELF once this happens. You CAN recover your system, but it will take time and work. Many files will be deleted/renamed or otherwise hidden. SOME can be recovered, others are gone forever (unless you have a BACKUP!)
BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!
** Other names for the LoveWorm now include:
"Your Mother's Day Order Confirmation", "Mother's Day
Specials",
"Accept Jesus Or Die!", "IMPORTANT - Please Pass This On",
"Just A Letter To Say I Love You", "I Hate School",
"I Hate Everyone But You..." and others (of course!)
The "Mother's Day 'Invoice'" message has the subject line
"Mother's Day Order Confirmation," with text that states the
recipient's credit card has been charged $326.92 (or some other
amount) for a Mother's Day diamond special.
The e-mail urges the recipient to examine the attached invoice
carefully and save it.
Once the fictional invoice is opened, the virus is in motion again.
This "Mother's Day" variant of the "worm" is especially nasty,
because instead of overwriting JPG, MP3, and various other "data" files
(as the "ILOVEYOU" worm does) it overwrites and deletes (and in another
reported variant CHANGES) .BAT and .INI files,
which can cause more damage and prevent systems from booting up.
In fact, it can make your system (software, not hardware) unusable!
(The above is not a comprehensive list, but more a note that simply deleting/ignoring/not reading messages that say "I Love You" in the subject is **NOT** enough!)
The list keeps on growing, and there are a number
of newer versions - each nastier than the last!
NOTE: The worm does NOT change of its own accord -
people are out there changing it and restarting it. This
NOT good for anyone, except those with the ethics of a
trilobyte (no, I do NOT mean troglodyte). The newest
(per)versions do even more damage, erase and rename files
and can make your Windows[tm] system totally inoperative.
You can stop it all - here and now - but it WILL take
work, patience, and understanding. If we all don't work
together, it will get worse until most people become
afraid to use their systems at all - and the light goes
out.
Sure, there are other systems than Windows[tm] out there; many as good or better. How many PEOPLE, though, are ready to give up everything they know, and the software they know how to use, and start over again? Not many, I'm sure.
The following are Solutions which require you to look, watch and learn!
The first step is to LOOK at what comes in your email.
NO MATTER WHAT IT IS, or what it appears to be, if you
aren't both EXPECTING an "attachment" and you know,
VERY WELL, the sender - DO NOT RUN IT! Do not "click"
on it! Throw it away!
ONE of the above is not enough! A good friend MAY
be infected by a virus/worm/nameit; if so, the mail
will APPEAR to come from him/her! Don't fall for it!
If worst comes to worst, email (or better, CALL) your
friend and ask. "Friends don't let friends run
unknown attachments!" (to paraphrase).
WATCH what is happening. Don't fall for the "it's just
a hoax and it can't happen to me anyway" syndrome. It
can, and does, happen. If you're not sure about something,
CHECK on it. Contact us,
IBECC, or someone/some company you can trust to give
you a straight, honest, answer.
Finally, LEARN how to tell the good from the bad.
DO NOT RUN any PROGRAM files that end with:
.EXE, .COM, .BAT, .PIF, .LNK, .VBS, .VBE, .REG, .CMD
(Alas, ".com" is also used in Internet addresses,
such as "http://www.cnn.com" - these are different!
Also note, the above may NOT be a complete list of
"dangerous" extensions - I'm sure we missed one (or more)!)
and BE CAREFUL about:
.HTM, .HTML (they can take you to a WWW site which
can have "nasty" or "poorly behaved" programs).
Yes, we know that the last two are so common as to be
hard to avoid - they are the basis for "The Web." But
check to see what they can do - and then set your
Internet Security appropriately.
LEARN about "firewalls" and "virus scanning" and decide
for yourself both whether you need them, and - if you do -
which one(s) are best for you.
If you know what a firewall is, and are looking for a FREE
firewall, then we suggest ZONE ALARM.
Alas, it does have
some bugs in it, but most are errors on the side of
caution as opposed to access.
Where to get it? Get it at:
ZoneLabs.Com
If you don't know how, or why, to use a firewall, again
talk to someone.
Most of all, "Don't Panic!"
Panic is what "they" are looking for.
If we don't give it to "them", and we don't fall for
their (nasty) tricks, we WILL have educated ourselves,
and armed ourselves against the "enemy" who is out to
take away our accomplishments, control, and self-worth.
We DON'T have to let "them" do this!
Really.
With a little bit of calm, rational, thought - along with
"Looking, Watching and Learning" - we can make it so that
this type of problem will never happen again!
Please feel free to contact us with any information, or questions,
you may have.
We will do our best to help.
We are also interested in your input and ideas. Please give
us Feedback!
We want to know what you liked, didn't like, especially
agreed (or disagreed) with. Thanks!
LoveWorm Update #1 LoveWorm Update #2 Back to News
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