[Vision2020] Virus infected mail purportedly from "Cweitz"

[David Camden-Britton]

Unfortunately, with Outlook Express there are certain security holes
which can allow the running of malicious code just as soon as a
message is previewed. Usually though, the person has to try and open
the attachment for a virus email to trigger its payload.

To fix these holes, it is important to go to the Windows Update
website and download the latest critical updates for your version of
Windows. You can either open Internet Explorer and click Tools -->
Windows Update or, you can go to: http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com
directly. Make sure and download the critical updates for your system.
 If you have Windows 2000 and haven't patched in a while, please read
these two knowledge base articles before doing so:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms04-011.mspx
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=841382

There is one other way to avoid many of these problems altogether:
Change the programs you use.  Internet Explorer needs to be on your
system because of the vast amount of websites that require it for
proper function. However, a pretty good replacement for Internet
Explorer and Outlook Express exist thanks to the Mozilla Foundation.
You can read more about Mozilla Firefox (an alternate browser) and
Mozilla Thunderbird (an email client) here:  http://www.mozilla.org/

I'm using Firefox right now in fact, and have gotten pretty attached
to it over the last few months. One of the coolest Extensions I've
used is the Magpie Tools.

-- 
David Camden-Britton  -=)*(=- groovydave at gmail.com

----- Original Message -----
From: Tim Lohrmann <timlohr at yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 11:52:52 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Virus infected mail purportedly from "Cweitz"
To: "Sam Scripter (fsr)" <moscowsam at moscow.com>
Cc: vision2020 at moscow.com


Sam,

     Thanks, I posted a cautionary post yesterday because it sure
looked like virus material to me even though I couldn't verify it.

     But it was apparently too late, because I noticed a mail or two
today from a regular V2020 subscriber(not cweitz) whose machine must
have been infected.

     Doesn't it take actually clicking to open the attachment
contained in the mail before infection begins though?

     Thanks, TL