Just got a virus from an e-mail!!! (1 Viewer)

[Harold Wazzu]

Not sure if this is the right place but here goes.

I was checking my hotmail and going through my junk mail when I saw an e-mail regarding a "Question for seller". So I clicked on it and right away my virus scanner said I had a virus. There were not attachments at all either.

Here are the details of it:

From : aguinaldo flint
Subject: RE: Question for seller -- Item #13583294...
Size : 2kb

I forgot to write down the name of the virus that my scanner picked up but the filename was like vb00000..something and it said it was in my "Temporary Internet Files" folder. Is this an old virus or something relatively new?

 

[Leila Dougan]

Without knowing the name of the virus, it's anybody's guess how new it is. There are a lot of virii based on visual basic scripts so it's hard to say. Empty out your temp internet files folder then rerun the virusscan to make sure it's gone.

 

[Harold Wazzu]

Yeah I did exactly what you said to do before I posted the message. My virus definitions are only 6 days old so I'm pretty confident I got it out of my system.

 

[Francois Caron]

If your virus definitions are 6 days old, then they're too old. You should be doing updates at least once a day.

Even when an e-mail has no attachments, it's important to be careful when opening it. There could still be a hidden script which downloads and activates the virus on your computer. In fact, just having the preview pane open in Outlook Express can be enough to load the virus.

 

[John Thomas]

FWIW, it looks to be a heading for an EBay auction.

 

[Bryan X]

Overkill. I don't even run an antivirus program and have yet to be infected. I'll run a system scan maybe once every six months just as general maintenance. Never found a thing.

Viruses that execute merely by viewing the email are very rare. If you are vigilant about any email attachments that come your way, you can keep yourself clean.

Anti-virus utilities are a necessity at the corporate level, but can be done without at home if you are cautious.

I would guess that most home anti-virus software is so woefully out-of-date that it is essentially useless anyway.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

Perhaps, if you're REALLY cautious and never, ever use Internet Explorer for browsing.

 

[JonSpice]

A sure way to know is the subject doesn't make sense, then your green world starts flashing red and it said it has to be manually fixed so I got rid of the e-mails, run a Norton virus scan then click on nortons update let it take it's time and then it said need to reboot. Came back on and the red virus has turned green and every thing was OK in green.


Sometimes I feel I playing a child hood game of red light stop light, but I do what is urgent in red and virus is red and I want it to be green. If you have Norton I hated McAffee's constant popups where as Norton comes from the right out and back in. A tan popup that says a virus update has been added then disapeers and only once in while, not every 10 minutes with red color McAffee.

 

[Bryan X]

That's what the anti-virus companies want you to think. I can't recall ANY recent widely successful virus that couldn't have been caught by a vigilant user without any help from an anti-virus software. The problem is that too many people are careless regarding the emails they receive.

The recent MyDoom is a great example. Even before the 'details' of the email worm were publicized, any cautious person would have never executed the attachment. The email just screams 'delete me'.

These are what I consider to be the three necessary things to do to keep your computer virus/worm free:

1) Run Firewall software such as Zone Alarm, not the Windows Firewall that only monitors incoming traffic(especially if you have a broadband connection).

2) Keep Windows up to date.

3) Be vigilant regarding the emails you receive. The delete button is your friend.

 

[Francois Caron]

AVG does. I've lost count on how many times there were almost an update per day during an entire week!

 

[Colin Davidson]

Unfortunately a great number of home users are NOT cautious and have to click and open every single attachment they get. EVEN attachments in emails they supposedly sent to themselves!

What's that old quote - from Pogo I think....

We have seen the enemy and we are they!

 

[Greg*go]

I agree with the reasoning behind the 2nd quote. Since not everyone is careful about virii is a great reason why you should be. Plus e-mailing isn't the only way to get a virus now a days...
this tread talked about the need for AV programs a bit. I like this comparrison: You may be the safest driver in the world, but one day you'll more then likely be thankful you were wearing your seatbelt.

 

[Bryan X]

Yes, that's true. Blaster is an example if I remember correctly. But again, if you were a 'vigilant' user as I described, you'd have updated Windows in a timely manner and been protected against the Blaster worm. Microsoft had a patch out for the vulnerability that worm took advantage of atleast a month before Blaster hit. It's just that too many people didn't update their systems.

Yes, anti-virus software can protect you. I'm not saying it won't. But a user who is cautious can keep their system clean without it.

I've cleaned dozens of viruses off acquaintences computers. All of them were running anti-virus software. None were keeping it up-to-date. All could have avoided infection by being better educated on what to watch for.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

I always recommend to people that they run a decent AV application. If someone passes you a copy of some data that you need to use, it's essential to be able to virus-check it before using it. The only way of being 'careful' in that situation is not to use the data, but that's cutting your nose off to spite your face.

 

[Bryan X]

I agree. AV software is great in that situation. I just think that having it run in the background 24/7 is not necessary.

As I've said, I'll run a system scan once every six months or so to verify everything is A-OK (and have never found a thing). I just find it unecessary to have it running in the background.

 

[JustinCleveland]

Agreed, I was on a college network a few years back and there was a particularly nasty bug that kept attacking everyone's system. I had a firewall installed and an anti-virus program so I was kept safe. My parents, who never visit ANY sites, got a virus on their computer. For a 30 dollar investment, you can get a good Anti-Virus program. Well worth the money and the piece of mind.

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

AV software is not optional at home. It certainly isn't at work, but it can be even more mandatory at home especially if you are on a broadband link.

Each broadband link, often used by just one person, has capability enough to be able to spew data in massive amounts. This is one of the facts that downed the sco.com site when mydoom triggered last sunday.

The reason hundreds of thousands of computers got hit is a combo of carelessness and cluelessness on the part of the users.

Anyone who's on the net owes it to all the rest of us to run a firewall and antivirus software. The antivirus should indeed be updated at least daily - if you're on an always-on broadband link, you can run multiple updates every day. Even if there are no new updates, at least your software will get updated as soon as new virus definitions are made available - not days afterwards when it is often too little too late.

 

[Chris_Morris]

AVG is free, uses less resources than Norton, and is a much better value for the price


Chris

 

[JonSpice]

I got hit by mydoom Norton had a fix I down loaded it and today I hot a red light on my update, I used the fix. All is green again the Norton software recognized it and I manually got rid of it before it could replicate.

 

[Colin Davidson]

So now there is DOOMJUICE....

From an article here:

Doomjuice Article

And especially relevant to this thread:



Very very interesting AND scary.