Load of Rubbish or True........
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Load of Rubbish or True........
Hi all. Just got this in an email, how true is it, seems a bit panicky to me or is it a load of rubbish?
>>--This is not a joke!
>>
>>Please Be Extremely Careful especially if using internet mail such
>>as Yahoo,
>>Hotmail, AOL and so on. This information arrived this morning
>>direct from
>>both Microsoft and Norton.
>>
>>Please send it to everybody you know who has access to the
>>Internet.
>>
>>You may receive an apparently harmless email with a Power Point
>>presentation
>>"Life is beautiful."
>>
>>If you receive it DO NOT OPEN THE FILE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, and
>>delete
>>it immediately. If you open this file, a message will appear on
>>your screen
>>saying: "It is too late now, your life is no longer beautiful."
>>Subsequently
>>you will LOSE EVERYTHING IN YOUR PC and the person who sent it to
>>you will
>>gain access to your name, e-mail and password.
>>
>>This is a new virus which started to circulate on Saturday
>>afternoon. AOL
>>has already confirmed the severity, and the antivirus software's
>>are not
>>capable of destroying it. The virus has been created by a hacker
>>who calls
>>himself "life owner."
>>
>>PLEASE SEND A COPY OF THIS EMAIL TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS and ask them
>>to PASS IT
>>ON IMMEDIATELY.
>>--This is not a joke!
>>
>>Please Be Extremely Careful especially if using internet mail such
>>as Yahoo,
>>Hotmail, AOL and so on. This information arrived this morning
>>direct from
>>both Microsoft and Norton.
>>
>>Please send it to everybody you know who has access to the
>>Internet.
>>
>>You may receive an apparently harmless email with a Power Point
>>presentation
>>"Life is beautiful."
>>
>>If you receive it DO NOT OPEN THE FILE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, and
>>delete
>>it immediately. If you open this file, a message will appear on
>>your screen
>>saying: "It is too late now, your life is no longer beautiful."
>>Subsequently
>>you will LOSE EVERYTHING IN YOUR PC and the person who sent it to
>>you will
>>gain access to your name, e-mail and password.
>>
>>This is a new virus which started to circulate on Saturday
>>afternoon. AOL
>>has already confirmed the severity, and the antivirus software's
>>are not
>>capable of destroying it. The virus has been created by a hacker
>>who calls
>>himself "life owner."
>>
>>PLEASE SEND A COPY OF THIS EMAIL TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS and ask them
>>to PASS IT
>>ON IMMEDIATELY.
Cool Mod
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Whether it is or it isn't Paul. Have nothing to do with it. Just delete it. It didn't have any attachments that you opened did it? Not a good idea.
Get rid of it and others of a similar kind.
Don
Get rid of it and others of a similar kind.
Don
Hmmmyeah
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Not to hijack the thread, rather since it seems to be spent with the hoax reassurance anyway, but does anyone actually open emails with attachments that come from unknown sources anyway?
I certainly don't, never have and never will. If it's not deliberately intended for you (ie. sent from a known contact) and it has an attachment then only one rule applies; delete delete delete.
I'm sure I'll get a virtual wrist slap here, but I never have, and do not intend to, run cumbersome, speed and processor sapping anti-virus software on any machine I've ever used (Personally that is. Work machines have it pre-loaded and it makes them a trial to use for the reasons noted above.) and I've never had a virus or trojan. The 'worst' being some moderately tenacious spy/adware type stuff that's easily dealt with by my weekly visit to Housecall and running Adaware and Spybot with the same frequency. That said, my machines have always sat behind a hardware firewall in the form of a router but, let's face it, who's doesn't these days?
Way I see it (in vastly over simplified terms) is this. If I'm behind a router, as I am, only packets expected by my machine/s reach it/them. Hence, If I request nothing dodgy, nothing dodgy gets to them. If I then, also, choose not to invite anything dodgy past my router, I'm safe. It may not be true in the literal sense, it has, however, never failed me.
Most every machine I ever sort out that's infested has anti-virus running though. Some disparity to my mind.
Open fire at will. I'm curious. Am I staying safely online due to sheer fortuitousness, being an astute internet user or are most people being sold a mainly useless and performance crippling dummy?
Edit to add: Of course, malicious attachments may well find their way from know contacts machines without that contact's knowledge but I generally find they're glaringly obvious (mostly 4 to 32kish, generally with weird file names). All without being any sort of computer geek either, even moderatley. Trying to make a decent spreadsheet proved my lack of ability only today.
I certainly don't, never have and never will. If it's not deliberately intended for you (ie. sent from a known contact) and it has an attachment then only one rule applies; delete delete delete.
I'm sure I'll get a virtual wrist slap here, but I never have, and do not intend to, run cumbersome, speed and processor sapping anti-virus software on any machine I've ever used (Personally that is. Work machines have it pre-loaded and it makes them a trial to use for the reasons noted above.) and I've never had a virus or trojan. The 'worst' being some moderately tenacious spy/adware type stuff that's easily dealt with by my weekly visit to Housecall and running Adaware and Spybot with the same frequency. That said, my machines have always sat behind a hardware firewall in the form of a router but, let's face it, who's doesn't these days?
Way I see it (in vastly over simplified terms) is this. If I'm behind a router, as I am, only packets expected by my machine/s reach it/them. Hence, If I request nothing dodgy, nothing dodgy gets to them. If I then, also, choose not to invite anything dodgy past my router, I'm safe. It may not be true in the literal sense, it has, however, never failed me.
Most every machine I ever sort out that's infested has anti-virus running though. Some disparity to my mind.
Open fire at will. I'm curious. Am I staying safely online due to sheer fortuitousness, being an astute internet user or are most people being sold a mainly useless and performance crippling dummy?
Edit to add: Of course, malicious attachments may well find their way from know contacts machines without that contact's knowledge but I generally find they're glaringly obvious (mostly 4 to 32kish, generally with weird file names). All without being any sort of computer geek either, even moderatley. Trying to make a decent spreadsheet proved my lack of ability only today.
Last edited by SyllogismCheck; 7th Feb 2006 at 23:52.
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>--This is not a joke!
>>Please send it to everybody you know who has access to the
>>Internet.
PLEASE SEND A COPY OF THIS EMAIL TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS and ask them
>>to PASS IT
>>ON IMMEDIATELY.
>>Please send it to everybody you know who has access to the
>>Internet.
PLEASE SEND A COPY OF THIS EMAIL TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS and ask them
>>to PASS IT
>>ON IMMEDIATELY.
Why don't they ever try and add a touch of 'spice', shake things up a bit, live on the edge and all that.
. Why not suggest sending it to all your friends who have never heard of the Internet ... Mode of delivery - carrier pigeons.
Ok, ok, will take my highly constructive and wise comments
and go find another cup of coffee, obviously needed for some functionality to return... could be hopeless quest though...
Too mean to buy a long personal title
Originally Posted by BRL
Hi all. Just got this in an email, how true is it, seems a bit panicky to me or is it a load of rubbish?
Plastic PPRuNer
Originally Posted by SyllogismCheck
.....I never have, and do not intend to, run cumbersome, speed and processor sapping anti-virus software on any machine I've ever used..........Work machines have it pre-loaded and it makes them a trial to use for the reasons noted above....
Way I see it (in vastly over simplified terms) is this. If I'm behind a router, as I am, only packets expected by my machine/s reach it/them. Hence, If I request nothing dodgy, nothing dodgy gets to them. If I then, also, choose not to invite anything dodgy past my router, I'm safe.......it has, however, never failed me.
Most every machine I ever sort out that's infested has anti-virus running though.
Way I see it (in vastly over simplified terms) is this. If I'm behind a router, as I am, only packets expected by my machine/s reach it/them. Hence, If I request nothing dodgy, nothing dodgy gets to them. If I then, also, choose not to invite anything dodgy past my router, I'm safe.......it has, however, never failed me.
Most every machine I ever sort out that's infested has anti-virus running though.
If the work machines are trial to use I'd suggest other or additional reasons for this.
"Way I see it..." well, vaguely sort of, but it ain't that simple.
"Most every machine..." - if the AV is out of date or there are other glaring security holes (like sharing the root of drives, etc.) then no AV will help.
I don't use AV software on my Linux boxen, but then it's a proper OS with good default security. Though I can't remember when one of my Windows boxes popped up a virus I sure wouldn't run 'em without AV (even though I keep 'em buttoned up real tight).
"Are you feeling lucky?" Guess you are.
Sure hope it stays that way
Slightly off topic and apologies if its been mentioned elseware....
Why do folk send to everyone using the copy to function of their E mail client so that we can all see who is in their address book.
Why don't they use the BCC function instead?
Angry from the Crescent
Why do folk send to everyone using the copy to function of their E mail client so that we can all see who is in their address book.
Why don't they use the BCC function instead?
Angry from the Crescent
Hmmmyeah
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Thanks, Mac. You seem to know your stuff on these matters and I admit that your comments have got me thinking. It just seems crazy that in all the years I've had computers on the net I've not had one single issue in spite of a total lack of security software whilst most peoples seem to go belly up on a regular basis inspite of having it in place.
Maybe it is time I played it safe. Afterall, I've never had a road accident but I still wear my seatbelt.
Maybe it is time I played it safe. Afterall, I've never had a road accident but I still wear my seatbelt.
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Originally Posted by SyllogismCheck
.. but does anyone actually open emails with attachments that come from unknown sources anyway?
I certainly don't, never have and never will. If it's not deliberately intended for you (ie. sent from a known contact) and it has an attachment then only one rule applies; delete delete delete....
I certainly don't, never have and never will. If it's not deliberately intended for you (ie. sent from a known contact) and it has an attachment then only one rule applies; delete delete delete....
Hmmmyeah
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Don't panic, Paul. That won't happen. There is no address book on my machince. All my email is web-based. Which also means, both incoming and outgoing, it all gets scanned.
Aside from which, I'm hardly going to merrily invite attachments with .pif, .scr, .exe or any other potentially malicious extension onto my machine from the webmail server, regardless of knowing the sender.
Aside from which, I'm hardly going to merrily invite attachments with .pif, .scr, .exe or any other potentially malicious extension onto my machine from the webmail server, regardless of knowing the sender.
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SyllogismCheck
Somewhere I have the logs of what happened when ILOVEYOU hit in 2000 - all from IT departments. You'd honestly have thought they'd've known better - the lusers are one thing, but programmers? It just goes to show that 'gullible' is not in the dictionary.
Mornington Crescent
Morons masquerading as my friends who send 'Hey thsi is funny:-)' messages cced to the Universe are reminded that the next such transgression will result in permanent messages from Miriam Abacha in return. Quite aside from being a spam magnet, it's plain bloody rude. Would they disseminate their own unlisted numbers so profligately?
As VirginPaul pointed out, your machine's defences will be as weak as your friends' if you drop your guard.
BOFH
Somewhere I have the logs of what happened when ILOVEYOU hit in 2000 - all from IT departments. You'd honestly have thought they'd've known better - the lusers are one thing, but programmers? It just goes to show that 'gullible' is not in the dictionary.
Mornington Crescent
Morons masquerading as my friends who send 'Hey thsi is funny:-)' messages cced to the Universe are reminded that the next such transgression will result in permanent messages from Miriam Abacha in return. Quite aside from being a spam magnet, it's plain bloody rude. Would they disseminate their own unlisted numbers so profligately?
As VirginPaul pointed out, your machine's defences will be as weak as your friends' if you drop your guard.
BOFH
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A good way to stop anyone e-mailing from your address book is to create a new contact and call it 0 AAAAA [that's zero space AAAAA]; this should make it the first entry in you address book. Do not enter an e-mail address. When the nasty tries to add it, it generates an error message and won't progress further until it gets an input from you.
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FJJP,
I do something similar, but I use an actual fake e-mail address rather than "0 AAAAA" I use [email protected]
I do something similar, but I use an actual fake e-mail address rather than "0 AAAAA" I use [email protected]
Plastic PPRuNer
IF
1) your ISP filters your email for spam and viruses
2) you use Mailwasher to pre-check your email
3) you're ultra-careful about what email you open and only view it as text rather than HTML
4) you've set Windows NOT to hide extensions for known file types
5) you have an up to date HOSTS blocking file
6) you always run as a user with minimal priviledges (rather than as Administrator)
7) you enforce proper password security with regularly changed 7 character alphanumeric passwords
8) you're running with a absolute minimum of services active
9) you run Windows Update religiously
10) you're using NTFS and have disabled Simple File Sharing and tightened things up
11) you're behind a tightly configured, preferably hardware, firewall (and most firewalls are NOT tightly configured out of the box)
12) you have a verified off-site Backup strategy
13) you have enabled and configured security auditing and review your logs regularly.
14) you use a non-Microsoft browser and email client.
15) Etc., etc., etc. you get the idea.
THEN you might consider running without AV in Windows (though no AV will protect you from Windows default insecurities).
There are dozens more security tweaks that you can apply, AV or no AV (such as changing the Administrator name from the default). I use most of them and I'd STILL be reluctant to run Windows without AV software.
A properly hardened Windows installation is quite a chore, but Windows can be made pretty tight.
A truly hardened Linux installation is also a chore, but then you're talking about security of a different order of magnitude!
Suggestion: Use AV software in Windows - Grisoft's AVG - http://www.grisoft.com/doc/1 - is my choice.
1) your ISP filters your email for spam and viruses
2) you use Mailwasher to pre-check your email
3) you're ultra-careful about what email you open and only view it as text rather than HTML
4) you've set Windows NOT to hide extensions for known file types
5) you have an up to date HOSTS blocking file
6) you always run as a user with minimal priviledges (rather than as Administrator)
7) you enforce proper password security with regularly changed 7 character alphanumeric passwords
8) you're running with a absolute minimum of services active
9) you run Windows Update religiously
10) you're using NTFS and have disabled Simple File Sharing and tightened things up
11) you're behind a tightly configured, preferably hardware, firewall (and most firewalls are NOT tightly configured out of the box)
12) you have a verified off-site Backup strategy
13) you have enabled and configured security auditing and review your logs regularly.
14) you use a non-Microsoft browser and email client.
15) Etc., etc., etc. you get the idea.
THEN you might consider running without AV in Windows (though no AV will protect you from Windows default insecurities).
There are dozens more security tweaks that you can apply, AV or no AV (such as changing the Administrator name from the default). I use most of them and I'd STILL be reluctant to run Windows without AV software.
A properly hardened Windows installation is quite a chore, but Windows can be made pretty tight.
A truly hardened Linux installation is also a chore, but then you're talking about security of a different order of magnitude!
Suggestion: Use AV software in Windows - Grisoft's AVG - http://www.grisoft.com/doc/1 - is my choice.
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I have to sheepishly raise my hand and say I'm with SyllogismCheck. I'm much more of a techy, but similarly, I've been using computers on an almost daily basis starting with a BBC B around 1985, I've never had any anti-virus software, and I've never knowingly suffered a virus attack.
Like SyllogismCheck, I've also been behind a hardware firewall (router) since 1999 or so. Mac - I know you know your onions on all this stuff, but if, as you say, you can't remember the last time your AV software actually caught anything, then you'd *probably* be just as safe without it.
Part of the reason for this is that most of the things people currently know as viruses are actually trojans - ie they don't spread by themselves, you have to invite them onto your computer. So long as I don't just click attachments willy-nilly, then I'm safe.
I do take security seriously - I use Firefox/Thunderbird largely for security reasons - but I'm not convinced that running AV software on top of everything else is necessary.
I've noticed the same phenomenon as SyllogismCheck - I know many people with AV software who nevertheless fall victim to various malware. Maybe there's a 'false sense of security' problem - SyllogismCheck and I are, metaphorically, driving without our seat belts on, and are thus very careful. Users with AV software may feel less need to think before double-clicking, and get themselves in trouble.
Like SyllogismCheck, I've also been behind a hardware firewall (router) since 1999 or so. Mac - I know you know your onions on all this stuff, but if, as you say, you can't remember the last time your AV software actually caught anything, then you'd *probably* be just as safe without it.
Part of the reason for this is that most of the things people currently know as viruses are actually trojans - ie they don't spread by themselves, you have to invite them onto your computer. So long as I don't just click attachments willy-nilly, then I'm safe.
I do take security seriously - I use Firefox/Thunderbird largely for security reasons - but I'm not convinced that running AV software on top of everything else is necessary.
I've noticed the same phenomenon as SyllogismCheck - I know many people with AV software who nevertheless fall victim to various malware. Maybe there's a 'false sense of security' problem - SyllogismCheck and I are, metaphorically, driving without our seat belts on, and are thus very careful. Users with AV software may feel less need to think before double-clicking, and get themselves in trouble.
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There may be a "random" or a "noise" element there.
I've been behind a NAT firewall for a few years, and I use Firefox/Thunderbird for the same reasons. But I also run AVG Free, and I reckon it catches a virus attached to an incoming mail about once a month.
Mind you, I'm an admin on a couple of forums/mailing lists, and I've also had most of my e-mail addresses harvested by spam robots (including addresses used only in very narrow circles - so someone there has been infected and had his address book "harvested"). I get about 500 spams a day now, of which 495 are caught by Spamcop and never get to my machine. So maybe one in 200 of the spams that get through contains a virus, which AVG traps.
My next-door neighbour isn't very computer literate, and she allows her kids free access to the computer. They manage to get a virus infection on it most months - I suspect from websites visited. AVG deals with most of those, although I get called in every few months to clear things.
So, CBLong, you're very lucky. I started using computers with a Honeywell dial-up timesharer around 1973, and went through the Commodore PET, BBC B, Amstrad path. The first virus I got was probably about 1995: I don't think they were a serious issue till about then.
I've been behind a NAT firewall for a few years, and I use Firefox/Thunderbird for the same reasons. But I also run AVG Free, and I reckon it catches a virus attached to an incoming mail about once a month.
Mind you, I'm an admin on a couple of forums/mailing lists, and I've also had most of my e-mail addresses harvested by spam robots (including addresses used only in very narrow circles - so someone there has been infected and had his address book "harvested"). I get about 500 spams a day now, of which 495 are caught by Spamcop and never get to my machine. So maybe one in 200 of the spams that get through contains a virus, which AVG traps.
My next-door neighbour isn't very computer literate, and she allows her kids free access to the computer. They manage to get a virus infection on it most months - I suspect from websites visited. AVG deals with most of those, although I get called in every few months to clear things.
So, CBLong, you're very lucky. I started using computers with a Honeywell dial-up timesharer around 1973, and went through the Commodore PET, BBC B, Amstrad path. The first virus I got was probably about 1995: I don't think they were a serious issue till about then.
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Keef,
I'm in a very similar position - I was also getting several hundred spams a day until Demon starting filtering them a couple of years ago. I'd say I get sent a virus in an email at least once a week, and in those cases I generally get the same email arriving at three or four of my email addresses at the same time. However, one doesn't need AV software to avoid being infected by a virus delivered in that way.
I completely agree that AV software can be a valuable safety net for less aware users, but I wouldn't agree that it is always true that not running AV software is foolish. One wouldn't suggest that a PPL student with 10 hours goes off solo to have a go at spinning, but that doesn't mean that spinning is off-limits to everyone.
I also have a cynical side, which leads me to believe that the multi-million dollar anti-virus industry has a vested interest in scaring people into buying their products, so I tend to trust my own twenty years of experience over Symantec's marketing department....
I'm in a very similar position - I was also getting several hundred spams a day until Demon starting filtering them a couple of years ago. I'd say I get sent a virus in an email at least once a week, and in those cases I generally get the same email arriving at three or four of my email addresses at the same time. However, one doesn't need AV software to avoid being infected by a virus delivered in that way.
I completely agree that AV software can be a valuable safety net for less aware users, but I wouldn't agree that it is always true that not running AV software is foolish. One wouldn't suggest that a PPL student with 10 hours goes off solo to have a go at spinning, but that doesn't mean that spinning is off-limits to everyone.
I also have a cynical side, which leads me to believe that the multi-million dollar anti-virus industry has a vested interest in scaring people into buying their products, so I tend to trust my own twenty years of experience over Symantec's marketing department....
