OT: Computer Virus Question

sturob · Post by **sturob** » Tue Aug 19, 2003 6:58 pm

I know this is OT, but you're a group of computer-savvy individuals . . .

Anyone else getting a TON of email today with *.pif files, about 70K, as attachments? Looks like some kind of virus something. I have a Mac, and I assume this is a Windows virus. . .

Am I just out of the loop and this is some well-known thing? Just delete them all?

Stuart

sturob · Post by **sturob** » Tue Aug 19, 2003 7:01 pm

Answered my own question! If you're interested, check this link.

Stuart

msheldon · Post by **msheldon** » Tue Aug 19, 2003 8:05 pm

Yeah, it's a modification of an older virus. (I hate comebacks)

I had to set up some scripts to automatically throw them away. I manage a several dozen domains, and was just getting *buried* in the stupid things.

Blayne Chastain · Post by **Blayne Chastain** » Tue Aug 19, 2003 10:41 pm

Symantec has a fix.

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/av ... .tool.html

Grrrrr!

carrie · Post by **carrie** » Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:48 am

I'm getting a ton of these emails as well, all of which I deleted. I opened one email but not the attachment. As long as I haven't opened the attachment, am I okay? I can't seem to get into some of my inboxes all of a sudden.

Thanks.

Carol

Chuck_Clark · Post by **Chuck_Clark** » Wed Aug 20, 2003 10:08 am

I figured something new was going on. I subscribe to McAfee antivirus (the best $20 bucks a year I can imagine) and they've been putting out upgrades on average every other day. One day last week they upgraded twice!

Yesterday it paid for itself. Caught and killed a total of eight virus-laden e-mails in a single session.

lddulcimer · Post by **lddulcimer** » Wed Aug 20, 2003 10:17 am

My wife started getting these emails this morning. AVG Anti-virus (Free!) caught them all. I suspect that many of our less computer-saavy friends will be infected and we will be seeing these emails for a while.

yuzz · Post by **yuzz** » Wed Aug 20, 2003 5:50 pm

I'll second that AVG free version caught all of mine too. It's available for download at http://www.grisoft.com

My first post and it's not about whistles!!

Yuzz

Cori · Post by **Cori** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 2:22 am

Yuzz - welcome! A whistler from my home town - how shocking! Though I guess it had to happen sooner or later.

Great to have you here!!

yuzz · Post by **yuzz** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 4:00 am

Thank you for that, Cori.
Maybe it was hearing you on the wind made me think "I can do that". squeak, squeak, squeak.
Brighton's the sort of town (oops city) where there just has to be loads of whistlers if only as an antidote to the drummers!
Martin

LeeMarsh · Post by **LeeMarsh** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 3:43 pm

I'm getting hits too. Please see my other topic. <a href=http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php ... highlight=> OT: But Board Related - Everyone Please Help - Virus: SoBigF</a>

This virus is a royal pain. I'm not infected but there is someone, who has our e-mail addresses, that is infected. I hope folks will scan their PC's.

O well, back to anticipating the delivery of my new whistle. So I can join the rest of you as you ...

IDAwHOa · Post by **IDAwHOa** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 4:09 pm

I got an interesting variety of this thing today on my yahoo account. My account that I use for my whistle playing was suddenly overfull. I checked the Bulk Mail folder and found it full of these 100K files. There was one that caught my attention. It was a Mailer Daemon type that indicates a non-deliverable email. I looked, nah, don't open it. Looked again and since I have been doing a lot of communicating I went for it. Sure enough, there was the .pif file at the bottom.

*** DELETE *** and emptied the bulk mail folder.

Keep an eye out for that thing. I think as long as the .pif files are not opened I believe you will be ok though.

Chuck_Clark · Post by **Chuck_Clark** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 6:27 pm

There were several news stories today that said SoBig's not just the nuisance they at first thought it was. Turns out there's a time bomb built into it that instructs the infected machines to download a file from somewhere (the trigger time/date was earlier today). Last I heard, they were still trying to identify and analyze the mystery file.

Moral - If you're gonna play online, you NEED a good AV program. It's no longer merely desirable but critical.

madguy · Post by **madguy** » Sat Aug 23, 2003 12:46 pm

All I want to know is, what satisfaction do these lifeless computer geeks get out of screwing with other peoples' computers? They desperately need to get out in the real world, and GET A LIFE!!!

~Larry