susan

jkuzbary@... wrote:

> Just received the following from a good friend here in Dallas:
>
> This information is from a report by the Associated Press that was
> forwarded to me a few minutes ago by a member of this email list. I have
> received 7 warnings so far today about the 'Love' Virus. In addition, a
> friend just informed me that his entire computer has just been wiped
> out. The first lines alone are enough to suggest extreme caution.
>
> The source of this article
> is: http://www.msnbc.com/news/403350.asp?0a=2107110-
> The site contains additional information on this virus.
>
> THE STATISTICS ARE STAGGERING. Nearly 30
> percent of businesses in Great Britain, and nearly 80
> percent in Sweden, have been infected by the virus,
> according to anti-virus research firm Network Associates.
> In fact, the company says, ATM cash machines in Belgium
> were knocked offline thanks to the deluge of e-mail traffic
> created by the virus.
>
> Many companies — and even the Army and the Navy
> — have resorted to simply shutting down their e-mail
> system while the virus worms its way around the Internet.
> “This is the worst I’ve ever seen in my nine years in the
> business,â€* said Mikko Hypponen, manager of anti-virus
> research at F-Secure Corp. “We actually don’t know why
> it’s so widespread, why it’s spreading so fast.â€*
> For example, one European magazine has lost its
> photograph archive, and the U.K.’s House of Commons
> closed down its e-mail systems temporarily over concerns
> about the virus.
>
> The virus targets users of Microsoft Outlook and only
> works under the Windows operating system. (Microsoft is a
> partner in MSNBC.)
>
> Internet users are advised to update their virus scanning
> software as soon as possible. But throughout the day,
> anti-virus Web pages have been swamped with traffic and
> largely unreadable. So for now, the best bet is to avoid
> opening attachments entirely.
>
> Researchers say the technology that spreads the virus is
> no smarter than that of previous viruses, leaving them a bit
> baffled over LoveLetter’s worldwide rapage. One possible
> reason — victims can’t resist opening an attachment that
> claims to be a love letter.
>
> “Only human nature to want to open a letter that leads
> off with ‘I love you,’â€* said David Perry, public education
> director at anti-virus research firm Trend Micro. He also
> suspects that because it’s been several months since the last
> virus scare, computer users are a bit more gullible than they
> were perhaps a year ago, in the wake of the Melissa virus.
>
> The file attachment is called “LOVE LETTER FOR
> YOU.TXT.vbs,â€* which might also be adding to the
> confusion for consumers. It offers the appearance of being a
> harmless text file, and the “vbsâ€* extension, which stands for
> Visual Basic Script, may also mislead users who are now
> trained to be skeptical of executable files with the extension
> .exe.
>
> WHO IS BEHIND THE VIRUS?
> In the virus’s source code, an individual named
> “spyderâ€* takes credit for authoring the program. Hypponen
> said the name is unknown on the virus scene.
>
> In a bit of programming understatement, the code
> contains a comment, likely by the author, suggesting the
> virus is “simple but i think this is good.â€*
>
> The code also references Manila, Philippines, but that
> doesn’t necessarily indicate the author lives there.
>
> There are no other hints as to who “spyderâ€* might be
> other than this cryptic message within the code: “barok
> -loveletter(vbe) “i hate go to schoolâ€*.â€*
>
> Many European computer systems shut down e-mail
> servers Thursday. Britain’s House of Commons was the
> latest U.K. organization to succumb to the virus. The lower
> House of Commons shut down its e-mail system for about
> two hours to safeguard against the virus.
>
> Britain’s Consumers Association and a major anti-virus
> firm said they also had been bombarded by calls from
> businesses whose e-mail servers had been hit by a blizzard
> of messages.
>
> British Internet service provider Freeserve said it had
> set up a filter to screen out any e-mails with the words “I
> love you.â€*
>
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