On Thu, 18 Apr 2002, Sam Suklis wrote to HaraRyoichi and wargs:
> Hello Hara: ANY of your incoming "list" letters that have a paper-clip
> next to the name,showing that an attachment is in the letter will be the
> infected ones.
True only if he uses Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express. Other mail
programs use other ways of indicating the presence of file attachments.
> I'm having trouble understanding why some Norton AV's aren't responding
> to it, as mine goes crazy. I'm guesssing some of the Norton's out there
> aren't of the type configured to scan e-mail OUTSIDE the portal, before
> it enters the computer.
Possibly, although most recent anti-virus programs scan incoming e-mail by
default. In order for that not to happen, you'd have to intentionally
turn e-mail scanning off. More likely is that they have failed to keep
their anti-virus software up to date. That's the most common
virus-related problem I have with my customers (I'm an ISP in real life).
When you buy anti-virus software it includes a "virus description
database" that includes all viruses known at the time the master copy of
the installation CD was produced. Any new viruses that appear after that
are not known to the anti-virus program, so will not be detected. You
*must* use your anti-virus software's "update" feature on a regular basis
to download and install the latest version of the virus description
database. If you don't, your anti-virus software is virtually useless
because it can't detect new viruses. The Klez.H worm that is currently
causing so much trouble is very new (first detected only a couple of days
ago), so chances are the anti-virus software on most MG-TABC members' PCs
wasn't up to date enough to catch it.
If I used a PC, because of the rapid-fire release of new viruses I'd run
my anti-virus software's database at least once a week. On a Mac it isn't
as critical because new Mac viruses appear very infrequently.
> This Virus mails itself over and over, and changes it's name each time.
The virus name is always Klez.H or some variation on that. What changes
is the "Subject:" line of the message, the text (if any) of the message,
and the name of the file attachment. Klez.H takes each of these from a
built-in list which is so long as to make the Subject, text, and
attachment name seem random.
--
Chip Old (Francis E. Old) E-Mail:
fold@bcpl.net
Manager, BCPL Network Services Phone: 410-887-6180
Manager, BCPL.NET Internet Services FAX: 410-887-2091
Baltimore County Public Library
320 York Road
Towson, MD 21204 USA