A warning about warnings

Maurice A. O'Sullivan mauros at iol.ie
Wed May 16 10:28:24 EDT 2001


Warning messages about new viruses are common enough on various lists ( 
including this one, recently ).

But listmembers [ especially those using Outlook Express ] should exercise 
extreme caution about a new warning message which  serves only to propagate 
a virus

Here is the start of a piece in yesterday's Computer World ( the entire 
piece can be read at: 
http://www.computerworld.com/cwi/stories/0,1199,NAV47-68-84-88-93_STO60596,00.html 
)


(May 15, 2001) Antivirus companies have long cautioned users against 
opening unexpected e-mail attachments or attachments sent by strangers, but 
thanks to a new e-mail worm spreading this week, antivirus companies can 
add themselves to the list of not-to-be-trusted e-mailers.

The worm, called VBS.Hard.A at mm, shows up in users' in-boxes disguised as a 
virus alert from Symantec Corp., the antivirus vendor said in a virus alert 
. With a subject line reading "FW: Symantec Anti-Virus Warning" and an 
attachment bearing the name "www.symantec.com.vbs," the relatively 
innocuous worm, like many other recent worms, is written in Microsoft 
Corp.'s Visual Basic script (VBS) and propagates through Microsoft's 
Outlook Express e-mail client.
<snip>



Maurice A. O'Sullivan  [ Bray, Ireland ]
mauros at iol.ie






More information about the B-Greek mailing list