Another new virus on the horizon

sigh.......

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994606

New? Horizon? LOL

I have already gotten 50+ emails with this virus on my work computer. Luckily I'm smart enough to know NOT to open any attachment that I'm not expecting or in a format that I'm not familiar with.

BTW, Norton Antivirus has rated this as a "High Alert", but their software has yet to catch any of the emails.

Right it has hit me as well. Some of it is pretty misleading- looking like I sent out email that I didn't remember sending out and telling me to open it quickly! No way jose, not me! I am smarter than the average bear! Learned the hard way about attachments

Yep, I've been getting them too.

*delete
*delete
*delete

I haven't got this. Thanks for the heads up Mary Anne.

I'm updating my AVG Virus database as I type........thanks

It looks like the anti-virus programs don't have a definition for this one yet. Just updated this morning and am running now with no results, even though I have about 30 of them sitting in the Delete box of Outlook.

The subject lines are changing as the day goes on, too. And I'm getting them from businesses that we have a relationship with, as well as bogus email addresses of my own company!

I already get so much spam on a daily basis that this is just more exercise for the already overworked delete function.

Yeah, my home account is getting spoofed so I'm not only getting 40 million virus emails, I'm also getting 40 million ISP emails claiming I sent a virus. *sigh* Don't have nothin' like that on my PC. I talked to my IT manager and he told me I may have to change my home account because the 2 sets may actually cause me to lose service. *sigh**sigh*

I've gotten emails with this attachment why do people do stuff like this!

I have not seen this virus, but I have had trouble with my home computer. Just today I had my virus scan updated; it found 3 viruses and 4 trojons on my PC.

There is suppose to be a way to tell for sure if you've got that worm or not. Look in your task manager and if you see the file "taskmon.exe", then you've got it. That's what I heard on the news and I wrote it down immediately before I forgot it.

By the way, I've been having to work on my brother's computer and he had lots of viruses. Most of them are those adware threats that only the newer versions of Virus Detectors pick up. So, since he doesn't have the 2004 version yet, I've been having to manually go through the files on his computer and I've already found more than 10 adware threats on there. I also found 2 trojan horses. No wonder he's been having so many problems with his computer! I'm still not through working on it yet. I'm still finding adware threats. He's going to have to go get the 2004 version, in case I can't find them all on my own.

I'm getting well over 200 emails with the new virus everyday. And no, I didn't and don't open any of them. Actually about 90% of my emails are deleted without me even opening them. If you ever email me - make sure you put a descriptive title anything with "Hi", "Hello" and "You forgot your umbrella here" gets deleted quicker than it took you to read those titles.

Hello, to clarify what georgiagirl8 posted just a little bit ago. I beleive what she heard on the news was a bit misleading. Newscasters are notorious for doing this sort of thing when glossing over tech news. Taskmon.exe has existed as a windows "backgrond" process for windows 98 and windows ME. (It was used by windows to do "intelligent" monitoring of program access etc.) While it is true that it is targetted by several worms and virii, it is in and of itself not an open indication of virus infection, so don't panic if you see it Hope this helps.

P.S.
For those having spyware problems. I've found using adaware 6.0 in tandem with spybot search and destroy both obtainable as shareware/freeware from www.download.com. Just scan with adaware first, then do a rescan with search and destroy, both scan using slightly different methods and weed out a TON of junk. I use both programs to quick trouble shoot user computers at work and they work quickly and well. HTH!

Here's the URL to the Symantec (Norton) write-up --

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/[email protected]

-- gets pretty technical in some places, but I did absorb a few things when I read it, one of which was that taskmon.exe is a valid file, which you SHOULD have on your system -- the critical issue is WHERE -- I'll leave you to read it and pick up whatever else is useful to you, but thought I'd mention that one.

Another thing I was reminded of when at the Symantec site, is that they update the virus strings available in their live update weekly -- on Wednesday. Since this beast was only discovered on Monday, that would explain why the new string is not in the live update stuff yet.

Anyway, all of that for whatever it's worth...

My email has put a great anti spam filter as a free thing for their customrs now instead of 100 spam a day I get one or two.

this one was coming in thick and fast here at work on Monday. We have not got in included on the anit virus stuff. I also ask why do they do it - it is not like they are there when the 'joke' goes down.

Originally posted by rapunzel47
Here's the URL to the Symantec (Norton) write-up --


Another thing I was reminded of when at the Symantec site, is that they update the virus strings available in their live update weekly -- on Wednesday. Since this beast was only discovered on Monday, that would explain why the new string is not in the live update stuff yet.

Anyway, all of that for whatever it's worth...

Click to expand...

FYI you can update your virus defs for Norton more than once a week by downloading them directly from their webpage at:

Symantec definitions

The Live Update version only changes on Wednesdays as you said. As of right now, their latest definitions were dated 1/27/04, and already included this virus. The website version changes when they make add new viruses, which happens several times a week usually. I only run Live Update once in awhile to see if there are software updates, since the page above will only give you the virus definitions. (I use another small Notes program to pop up twice a week on my screen to remind me to go to the site.)

When I download the definitions there, I don't even 'save' the download: I just 'open' the program directly from their webpage and let it run.(You usually have the option to do that when the download window first pops up.) Otherwise, you can wind up with a lot of large update virus def files accumulating on your PC.

I got a couple of suspicious emails, one didn't have an attachment.

THanks for the reminder about spybot. I purged my system recently, and haven't re-downloaded protective software. Going to do that right now.