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We've relocated our office to Sequim, but we're not gone! We welcome you to register with us to access our updated contact information. Also, as a registered user, you'll be able to learn more about our newly-implemented LogMeIn Rescue service, which enables us to solve many computer problems within minutes of your call! Register today!| Virus Warning: Mydoom.AX |
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| Written by Tim | |||
| Saturday, 19 February 2005 12:27 | |||
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There is a virus that has been making the rounds as of February 16th that has been moved up to a medium threat due to the growing number of reports that people have received it.
The virus in questions is identified as W32.Mydoom.AX@mm. More information about this virus can be viewed at http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/ This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it The virus was discovered 02-16-2005. Current Norton, McAfee and AVG updates WILL detect this virus, and a normal system scan will detect it after it has infected a system. This virus arrives in the form of a .ZIP file. It uses a fairly deceptive method for spreading itself. It will use only the domain (I.e. the @ctslive.net part) from any e-mail addresses it finds (which it looks for in the Outlook Address Book as well as several other common storage areas on an infected computer) and use a random name in the front of this domain. What this means is that you may receive an e-mail that seems to come from a legitimate source such as " This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it " or something similar. The body of the message states: "Your e-mail account has been used to send a large amount of unsolicited e-mail messages during the recent week. Obviously, your computer had been compromised and now runs a trojan proxy server. Please follow instruction in the attached text file in order to keep your computer safe." McAfee, Norton and AVG claim that their updated virus definitions WILL detect this virus before it is delivered to your inbox, however, better safe than sorry. As always, make sure to look for a signature on any e-mails that come in with attachments. These emails come with a signature that will say something along the lines of: "Best wishes, The ctslive.net support team." or whatever site it is claiming to come from. Remember that this is an excellent way to test the validity of an incoming message. If the signature on a new email message is not what you are used to seeing from the person the message seems to have come from it is most likely to be fake. It is also important to remember that it is safe to open and read the e-mail message, but not the attachment. Also remember that for certain types of files, even saving the file and right clicking to view the properties may execute part of the code, and thereby infect a system. And finally, a question that was asked recently, attempting to print the file without opening it also WILL infect a machine. Windows has to open the file in order to read the text and print it.
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