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SEPTEMBER 2003 Iherb.com SALE price of $8.00 Order now! |
Author: Mary J. Shomon
ISBN number: 0060938196
List price: $14.95 (US dollars), $8 at Iherb.com
Published by: HarperCollins, HarperResource
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About the SoBig Virus (September 2003)
Since the outbreak of the SoBig virus, because I am in so many of your address books, I have been receiving thousands and thousands (more than 200,000 so far) of virus-infected emails a day. The way this virus works is:
(1) you receive an email with one of the following subject lines:
Re: Thank you!
(2) The body of the email says either "See the attached file for details," or "Please see the attached file for details." You click on the link for the email's attachment, which is a file ending in pif or scr. Clicking on this attachment activates the virus.
Thank you!
Your details
Re: Details
Re: Re: My details
Re: Approved
Re: Your application
Re: Wicked screensaver
Re: That movie
(3) the virus then accesses your email address book, and "steals" the email addresses. It then sends out multiple virus emails to people in your address book, usually borrowing addresses from your address book and using them in the "From" area. This makes it look like the "From" address is actually sending the virus email, even though it's not.
This faking of the "From" address, called "spoofing," is why you don't have to be infected for a virus email to go out that looks like it's from you. That's your address. My address, again because it's in so many people's email address books, has been spoofed many thousands of times, so you may have received virus emails that appear to be from me.
What Should You Do?
First, don't open any emails that have the above subject lines, and certainly don't click on any attachments!
Second, rest assured that I am NOT infected, and I am NOT sending you viruses. I run two different programs -- Norton Anti-virus, and ZoneAlarm firewall program -- to protect myself against viruses and hacking. And honestly, with all the havoc that viruses are causing these days, you should be using both an antivirus AND firewall program too.
Third, get your own copies of these programs, so that you don't spread the viruses further. If you're infected now and don't clean your system, your ISP may disconnect you. And future versions of these viruses may be able to access more of your personal information, or do damage to your data!
You can get a free trial version of Norton Antivirus online at:
http://nct.digitalriver.com/0001
And you can get a free trial version of ZoneAlarm online at:
http://www.zonelabs.com
Finally, learn more about the SoBig Virus!