Microsoft users warning for SuperBowl day

On the national news tonight they are telling everyone to update your virus programs or stay offline during Superbowl Sunday. Some sort of doom virus is supposed to unleash itself on computers-

Not beeing in the US, I have a stupid question....Is Superball Sunday this Sunday? Just wondering if I should stay off the internet tomorrow, or some other Sunday. I hope it´s tomorrow, since I have Survivor (season 7 in the Survivor Marathon) to watch, am also probably going with my parents to drive on a glacier, since the weather should be good, and I am back do dial-up for a while since, probably due to a virus, my my computer "cant find" my modem.

Super Bowl Sunday is tomorrow.

Yes, the Super Bowl is this Sunday.

Thanks for the heads up MA !!

Pollyanna, I live in the US, and I didn't even know when Superbowl Sunday was. I wonder if this is supposed to take effect at midnight or sometime during the day.

Superbowl..*Thinking, is this the same as Softball* and is this like that stupid Y2K thing?

The "MyDoom" internet worm has been simmering for some time, infecting thousands of PCs worldwide. In brief, it "captures" PCs, installs the worms, and then all the infected PCs launch a coordinated denial of service attack on the Web site of the American software firm SCO Group. The connection with Super Bowl Sunday was that the coordinated attack on SCO was to begin at midnight, U.S. Eastern Time, today, Feb. 1. Indeed it did, and brought the SCO web site down, paralyzing it with thousands upon thousands of requests.

Now is your chance! There is a total of at least US $500,000 in rewards offered if you can identify the person(s) launching this worm.

Miss Kitty says that she sees no need for any increased vigilance because of this worm if you are taking the normal precautions which we should all be taking routinely. The most important are two-fold. First, have a good antivirus program installed, KEPT UP-TO-DATE, and scan your PC often. Daily is not too often. Secondly, NEVER open an attachment to an email unless you are absolutely confident that it is safe. Attachments from trusted friends and colleagues are particularly dangerous, since worms like MyDoom go from friend to friend without their even knowing they have been infected.

All the best to all,

It does make you wonder about some people though doesn't it? All this talent and skill they have and they use it to hurt rather than help. Can never figure that out.

James, hope you have that portable television ready this year?

Originally posted by hissy
James, hope you have that portable television ready this year?

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Howdy, Hissy,

Since we chilled out and dropped out and began our new life on the beach about the only reason we have a TV now is so the grandkids can play their tapes and DVDs quietly in their room when they visit. We did, however, order a "Bug" tape for Miss Kitty which we found mention of on this site, but it has shown no sign of ever arriving. The nice thing is that when you live on the beach you don't get upset by things like that any more.

nope the sounds of the waves have a very calming effect. I lived on the beach a long time ago. I sure do miss it. Loved it when it stormed!

Too bad I didn't see this earlier. Superbowl Sunday is today (Monday the 2nd) for those in the Pacific.

Mydoom has been shutting down servers here in Europe all week. There is now a variant, too.

"MyDoom worm spreads as attack countdown begins
Variant emerges, targets Microsoft

LONDON, England (Reuters) --Security experts warned on Thursday the fast-spreading MyDoom virus would plague e-mail users for some time as it counts down to a mammoth digital attack next week on Microsoft and software firm SCO Group Inc.

For a fourth consecutive day, Internet service providers and corporations were bogged down by a crush of infected e-mails.

Security experts said as many as one in three e-mails in circulation was triggered by MyDoom.A, making it the fastest spreading Internet contagion ever.

"We are seeing companies struggling with this as they cannot clear the viruses quickly enough," said Graham Cluley, technology consultant for anti-virus and anti-spam firm Sophos Plc. "This one will be with us for a while."

Meanwhile, sleep-deprived security experts said they were largely powerless to stop the virus's coordinated digital attacks, timed to hit Web sites for SCO on Sunday and Microsoft on Tuesday, security officials said.

"It's very difficult for anti-virus firms to react in these scenarios. We're always going to be on the back foot," said Paul Wood, chief information analyst for British-based e-mail security firm MessageLabs.

Machines turned into zombies
Since appearing this week, the MyDoom.A worm, also dubbed Novarg or Shimgapi, has infected computers across the globe by enticing users to open a file attachment that releases a program capable of taking over a victim's computer.

Once hit, the program scours the Web for more computers to infect. MyDoom.A is programmed to send spam e-mails to spread the infection further and marshal an army of infected machines to knock SCO's Web site offline on Sunday.

On Wednesday, a second variant dubbed MyDoom.B, appeared. It spread less quickly, but carried a program timed to unleash attacks on SCO and Microsoft. Also, it prevented access to anti-virus sites where patches for the bug are available.

Computer security companies continued to warn people not to open any suspicious attachments in e-mail messages.

Since the worms often appear as error messages from "Mail Administrators" and other official-looking addresses, many people inevitably open the attachment after finding minimal information in the message.

Computers running any of the latest versions of Microsoft's Windows operating system are at risk of being infected, although the worm doesn't exploit any flaws in Windows or software.

Instead, MyDoom is designed to entice the recipient of an e-mail to open an attachment with an .exe, .scr, .zip or .pif extension.

In the firing line
The financial damage from the outbreak -- from network slowdown to lost productivity -- is difficult to measure, but is assumed to be billions of dollars, according to experts.

For the ordinary computer user, MyDoom's toll will be measured in bounced e-mails and an inability at times to enter your inbox as ISPs seek to filter out bogus traffic.

For Microsoft and SCO, their Web sites are once again in the firing line.

SCO, a small Utah-based software maker suing International Business Machines Corp. over the use of code for the Linux operating system, has been the target of denial-of-service attacks in the past by apparent pro-Linux protesters.

Last year, Microsoft's site for software upgrades was permanently moved to a new Web address to avert a similar onslaught triggered by the Blaster worm.

SCO this week issued a $250,000 bounty for information leading to the arrests of the authors of MyDoom. In November, Microsoft offered two $250,000 rewards for tips leading to the arrest of the Blaster and SoBig virus writers.

Some security experts theorized that the MyDoom variants were written by the same individual or group, but had no solid clues on their whereabouts."

Copyright 2004 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/interne...eut/index.html

How does a person know if they've been infected by the virus? I've been getting tons of emails saying they cannot be delivered, but I don't recognize the recipients it has been sent to and it's showing it's been sent by me to this person. I haven't opened any of them, just deleted them, but what can I do to make sure I haven't already been infected by the Doom virus??? Is there somewhere for users who've been infected to get a patch for this? I agree that there are so many smart people out there, and it is very sad to know that they use this to create havoc on so many others. Very sad...

If you haven't opened any attachment then you should be OK. Just in case, you can download this Removal Tool from Symantec (a.k.a. Norton) and run it just to be sure. http://securityresponse.symantec.com...oval.tool.html

Good to see you Sandi! How are Kitty, Lucky and Charm doing??

For the past week, I have had e-mails show up, in one of my inboxes, from people, whom I've never heard of. The subject is always either "none" or "hey ". Needless, to say, I have deleted every one, without opening it.

Originally posted by Sandi
How does a person know if they've been infected by the virus?

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Here is a McAfee source for checking for the MyDoom worm.

http://vil.nai.com/vil/content/v_100983.htm

Originally posted by katl8e
For the past week, I have had e-mails show up, in one of my inboxes, from people, whom I've never heard of. The subject is always either "none" or "hey

". Needless, to say, I have deleted every one, without opening it.

Click to expand...

Cindy I have been getting tons of these same messages in my email, and I've also been deleting them. I hadn't heard anyone else that I know mention these so I'm glad you did. Always either 'none' or 'hey' as the subject like you said, and from some random person I've never heard of. Not sure if they have attachments though, I've been deleting them without even looking further.

Updated and online during the superbowl Two things that go good together

Sunni Jean, you're the only other one, who's said anything about those weird e-mails. I thought they might be my ex and the cyber-****, pulling one of their tricks but, I guess not.