 | Virus Information Page | |
  | The Music being played is called "In the Mood" by Glenn Miller. It was chosen because it spiced up an otherwise dull page. :) Hope you enjoy it. |  |
According to Rootsweb's FAQ (https://support.rootsweb.com/help/mail4.html#Q1), Rootsweb States:
"A List Administrator is the person responsible for the daily operations of the list and is expected to handle bounced messages and help subscribers with list problems." As you read through all the Rootsweb FAQs, you will find things states such as:
Generally, you are asked to stay on topic and not post things like flames (insults, name calling, etc.,) virus warnings or hoax warnings. A Genealogy-Related Mail List should concern far more than just Names, Dates and Places. It should contain many other items of interest to the List Members, and one of those items is the topic of Computer Viruses. The posting of a Virus Warning is not unlike the Public Service Announcements you see on TV and just like the Public Service Announcements, a person can pay attention to them or ignore them. However one must realize that this is up to the List Admin of the particular List in question to decide. On the Ireland Mail List, the List Admin tolerates Virus Warnings being posted to the list -- just as long as they don't get too out of hand. :) In a Message to the Mail List, the List Mom states:
A Chairde, Please note that she does not state that the Posting of Virus Warnings are Off-topic. One should take care when posting Virus Warnings. The first thing you should do is to go to a WEB Site like Norton's (Symantec) or McAfee's and see if they list the Virus you plan to report as a Hoax. These are a couple of the best sites on the net for accuracy about Viruses and Hoaxes. The Second thing to do is to pay attention to the other messages on the list, before posting your warning, check to make sure someone else hasn't posted the warning already. An easier way to make the List aware of Viruses is to send it to the List Admin and let him/her handle it. If the Virus Warning is not posted, then odds are it has been posted in the recent past. A third way is to start a list of recent Virus Warnings for this site and urge all List Members to utilize the List on a daily or weekly basis. When we see a Newby come onto the List, he or she can then be guided to the WEB Site for such information. There are other things which could be added to the above bits of advice, but these should suffice for now. The List Mom, and many List Members, appreciate the postings about a new virus out there (or an old one which is making the rounds again, for that matter) - however, we must also remember that the reason for joining this list was not to receive Virus Warnings. The Members should be tolerant of the Virus Warnings posted, but at the same time we should strive to not cause unnecessary postings. :)
You will also find a statement from Rootsweb entitled "Virus Warnings" at https://support.rootsweb.com/announce.html#virus. It reads:
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See the Virus FAQ at:
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It seems people are conditioned to the idea that if we hear something on the News, or read it in a "Bonifide" or "Acredited" News Source, that it must be true.
Many of us has spotted errors in News Stories over the years. Even though we spot these stories, a part of us seem to justify it as it being a rare event, and go on thinking that the other News Stories we see must be accurate. In addition, it seems we also are conditioned to basically believe that other professionals mostly give out complete and accurate information.
If a statement is given and it comes from a government agency or the person has a list of initials after his name which represents his degrees, we then tend to figure the information is true. A recent issue arose over the "Chinese" threatening to attack the internet. These reports gave me several hours for amusement. I found this article, which I found amusing and thought-provoking, at the VMyth's site. The Article is incomplete because I do not show the Links they did with in their article. To get the full scope of what they say, a person should log onto VMyths and read the article as they posted it.
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Submitted by: tmeehan
I think it's time for something else to smile over! You have just received the Amish virus. Because we don't have any computers, or programming experience, this virus works on the honor system. Please delete all the files from your hard drive and manually forward this virus to everyone on your mailing list. Thank you for your cooperation.
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| The BADTRANS Virus is still making it's rounds on the Email Lists. As with most email virii, the real problem with the Virus comes in when the File Attachment is opened and the system is infected. It is then that the virus begins to spread at sxponential rates. This write up on the BADTRANS Virus, from the Symantec Site, is one of the best write ups about the Virus that I have seen:
W32.Badtrans.13312@mm |
Cambridge, United Kingdom, April 12, 2001 - Kaspersky Labs, an international data-security software-development company, warns computer users about the discovery "in-the-wild" of the new multi-component Internet-worm "Badtrans.�� The worm infects computers running the Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000 operating system. "Badtrans" is a Win32 executable file (PE EXE file) found "in-the-wild" in compressed form, and is about 13Kb in size. Being decompressed, the worm's size increases to about 40Kb. The worm has a multi-component structure, and consists of three different components that are dropped on a disk as different files and are run as stand-alone programs (dropper component, e-mail worm and a Trojan). The worm routine is the main component, keeping the Trojan program body in its code and installing it into the system while infecting a new machine. The Trojan component enables a remote user to perform unauthorized control over the infected system and steal confidential information. "Badtrans" arrives as an e-mail message with an attached file with a name randomly selected from the name list, and contains the text: "Take a look to the attachment" in the message body. In addition to stealing confidential information, the worm's other danger is its ability to paralyze the data transmission channels. Because of a minor bug, it may send out its copy to every single unread message in the inbox folder, even if it has been received from another infected computer. For example, a worm at computer "A" detects an unanswered message in the inbox folder received from infected computer "B," and sends its copy there. In turn, computer "B" receives an infected message and answers back and so on, reminiscent of the well-known ping-pong game where players try throwing a ball to the other part of the field. As a result, data traffic between two infected computers increases a thousand-fold, and in just one hour, the worm can deliver literally thousands of infected messages. Protection against the "Badtrans" worm has already been added to the KasperskyTM Anti-Virus virus signature database. Please update your Kaspersky Anti-Virus using the built-in updater or manually from
More details about the worm are available in the Kaspersky Virus Encyclopedia:
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| BadTrans virus fizzles on Good Friday By Robert Lemos
Special to CNET News.com A virus that monitors a PC's network connections and sends itself in response to any incoming e-mail has apparently failed to spread, despite, or because of, warnings issued by several major antivirus software makers. "We initially gave it a medium rating, but we expect to downgrade that today," Susan Orbuch, spokeswoman for antivirus company Trend Micro, said Friday. Though several of Trend Micro's customers reported receiving e-mailed copies of the virus, only three companies were actually infected, Orbuch said. The mass-mailing worm, known as W32/BadTrans, appears attached to an e-mail message either as a screensaver (.scr) or Windows shortcut (.pif) file, with any one of a variety of names, including Card, docs, hamster, humor and 12 others. If opened, the worm first displays a dialog box titled, "WinZip Self-eXtractor," which reads, "File data corrupt: probably due to a bad data transmission or bad disk access." Then the worm will install a backdoor program, compromising the computer's security, and mail the victim's IP address to the virus writer. The worm also replies to all incoming e-mail messages, attaching itself to the outgoing message. The new message will have the same subject line and message body as the original e-mail, and the sender will be the victim's username. While it has some of the makings of a successful mass-mailer, BadTrans has effectively fizzled out, said Vincent Gullotto, director of Network Associates' antivirus emergency response team. On Thursday the company received only 10 reports of the worm, he said. "There is a possibility that it was a bit more prevalent in the U.K. and Europe," he said. "But we consider it to be a low threat." Symantec's Web site rated the virus as a 3 out of 5, with less than 50 infections to date. The failure of the virus to spread may not mean that people are getting smarter in the use of e-mail. >{? According to Trend Micro's research team, the virus had several technical problems. "Not every version of the virus is working," said Trend Micro's Orbuch. In addition, an attempt by the virus writer to make the worm not respond to e-mails from other infected computers was flawed. Two or more infected computers in a company result in a spam war of messages bouncing back and forth, which makes the worm extremely visible, Orbuch said.
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Useful Links:
Symantec Downloads Hoaxes and Warnings:
Symantec Security Updates = Hoaxes For Discussions concerning Viruses:
[email protected]
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