Yo!!!

[Aaron]

Man!!!

My computers caught a virus, and I had to shut down my systems for  most of this week.

Luz Amparo of Latinbest accidently sent me the latest version of the badtrans virus that was first discovered on Tuseday.

An alias of the virus is ME_NUDE. What happened was as soon as I opened the email meassage, I was prompted with a dialog box to download a screen saver from an internet site.

I selected to download the file, and save it to a disk. After I did that....I KNEW I WAS IN TROUBLE !!!!!

The virus allows the creator to collect password information, saved credit card information, and other things used while on line. When all this information is collected, it is sent back to the creator with a hotmail account address.

Be careful out there,
Aaron

[stefang]

... in response to Yo!!!, posted by Aaron on Nov 30, 2001

If anybody is interested look into checking out Zone Alarm. It is an internet virus and security software. It is supposed to be the best one out there and it is free. I think there is a professional one also for a fee. I know anytime I send personal info over the net it asks me first if I trust the website. It also contains firewalls and tells you when updates are available. I don't remember how long it took me to download but when I had McAfee my system was always locking up and I would have to hard boot.

[JunFan]

... in response to Re: Yo!!!, posted by stefang on Nov 30, 2001

I use ZoneAlarm, it is a must if you are on high speed internet connections like DSL or cable modems.  I also run PC-Cillin (by TrendMicro), which is your basic antivirus program.  

Mike

[JunFan]

... in response to Yo!!!, posted by Aaron on Nov 30, 2001

That virus sounds pretty nasty. That sucks...I got hit with LuvBug awhile back, my wife had disabled the anti-virus.  Just curious, were you running antvirus programs?

Mike

[Patrick]

... in response to Re: Yo!!!, posted by JunFan on Nov 30, 2001

Most of the virus checkers have a link where you can update your virus definition files.  You have to update every month or so just to keep up with the latest viruses being created.  I know at least McAfee once every year or so changes there program so you can't use updated virus definition files and have to buy the latest version.  And we all thought the international intro business was corrupt!

[Aaron]

... in response to Virus updates, posted by Patrick on Nov 30, 2001

Patrick,

Thanks for the info. My desktop is about 2 years old, and uses McAfee. But, I never paid much attention for updating the definitions, or buying another version. So, now I'm paying for this negligence.  

My desktop became infected first, but I didn't know it because my definitions weren't updated. I infected my laptop by transfering CDRWs between them, and opening files in my laptop. The Norton 2002 anti-virus immediately told me I had caught a virus on my laptop, but it was so recent that the anti-virus package couldn't do anything with it. After that, I knew my desktop was probably infected too.

Soon after that, I shut down both computers, and took them to get repaired.

This all happened within 40 minutes after I had first received the message with the virus. So, the virus didn't have much opportunity to spread to system files.

Aaron

[Aaron]

... in response to Re: Yo!!!, posted by JunFan on Nov 30, 2001

JuneBug,

On my desktop no, on my laptop yes. The laptop confirmed that the file was actually a virus, but by that time I had already infected the unit.

Since the virus is so recent, Nortan 2002 could not do anything to clean it up. I had to take it to a specialist because I didn't know of a way to get rid of it.

Everything is fine now. The virus is pretty bad, but I routinely delete my cookies, and other information that may be saved in text fields when I work on line. So, it could not have gotten any information anyway. Another thing is this, although the server that I am connected to has a standard IP address, it issues secondary static IP addresses to people who use telephone modes. This is double protection because my IP address changes everytime I disconnect from on line.

Did you ever hear of the NIMBA virus. One guy I know had it. It ruins everything to the point of no return (i.e., comupter, servers, printers, and external drives).

Aaron