Virus & Email Hoax Info
Some Viruses Depend on You
The Klez virus impersonates / forges the from address based on infected Outlook user's address books. It randomly takes an address from the address book and sends to a random address in the address book. Sort of a social engineering feat based on the six-degrees of separation theory. This is probably just the tip of the iceberg in the future of clever email viruses. So, what can we do about this? Cryptographically sign all human generated messages. Until that is implemented, keep the following thoughts in mind when you see an attachment or an e-mail message with embedded hyperlinks:
- Is this attachment expected through prior arrangement?
- Is this message uncharacteristic of the sender's style or email application? (Grammar, signature lines, "rich" text vs. plain, prevarication, etc.)
- Does the message make sense? A recent example... "Hi,This is a IE 6.0 patch. I expect you would enjoy it." Why would anyone "enjoy" an IE 6.0 patch?
- Does it appear they know who you are (similar to #2) or could the message be addressed to anyone?
Newsbytes: Virus Hoax Making the Rounds
There is a bogus virus warning being passed around that warns people about a file that may be on their computer and urges them to delete it and pass the warning to everyone in their addressbook. The computer file in question is a legitimate Windows component that should not be deleted. For more detail, see the Newsbytes article.
Posted: 05/03/02
University Resources:
Non-University Resources:
- Internet Scambusters
- F-Secure Datafellows Virus Bulletins and definitions
- CIAC Internet Hoaxes (List and help identifying)
- Symantec Virus Hoaxes (Comprehensive list viruses that do not exist)
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