Re: ADMIN -- VIRUS ALERT PrettyPark

From: John I Jones <jijones@ix.netcom.com>



Bob & Leslie Liddiard wrote:
> 
> From: "Bob & Leslie Liddiard" <liddiard@esn.net>
> 
> Hi All:
> 
> I just wanted everyone to know that my computer was affected by the virus that came through iris-talk.  It totally crashed yesterday morning even though I "did not" open the email or attachment and deleted it as I've been told to do.  According to my local computer guru, you not only have to delete the file, but immediately send it to the recycle bin as well for total deletion.  This will insure that it has been completely deleted.  Also, please note that according to Norton Utilities, as of yesterday Pretty Park has not been added to their list of viruses (worms).  They, too, were obviously caught by surprise.
> 

To all:

A couple of comments here. 

First: I do not believe it was the message from iris-talk that infected
Leslie's machine, but rather the one from iris-photos (she is subscribed
to both). The reason is that I have recently reconfigured iris-talk so
that any non-text attachments are automaticaly stripped off and not
forwarded to the list. I did this for other reasons, but it had the
added benefit of preventing this worm from being broadcast to the 395
members of iris-talk.

If any of you who are subscribed to iris-talk but not iris-photos *AND*
believe you have have been infected by the iris-talk message from
Earnest Royal, please let me know (privately) immediately.

Norton does indeed have information about PrettyPark, but Leslie may
have missed it because it is listed under the name Worm.ExploreZip. If
you use the search engine on the Norton home page and search for
PrettyPark (one word), you will find info about it. They say:
"The worm was first discovered in Israel and submitted to the Symantec
AntiVirus Research Center on June 6, 1999." 

I did not verify that they had a virus description for it, but would
expect that they do.


This whole incident, however, brings home the point:

Never, *Never*, ***NEVER*** open an attachment unless you are sure you
know where or who it came from, and if you receive a suspicious attachment,
update your virus scanner descriptions file (generally free from the
manufacturer of the virus scanning software) and scan the suspicious
file. There are people out there that will destroy your system just for
the thrill of being able to do it. 

John                     | "There be dragons here"
                         |  Annotation used by ancient cartographers
                         |  to indicate the edge of the known world.
________________________________________________

USDA zone 8/9 (coastal, bay) 
Fremont, California, USA 
Visit my website at:
http://members.home.net/jijones

President, Westbay Iris Society
Director, Region 14 of the AIS
AIS Special Committee for Electronic Member Services

Subscribe to iris-talk at:
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Subscribe to iris-photos at:
http://www.onelist.com/subscribe/iris-photos
Archives at:http://www.mallorn.com/lists/iris-photos/
________________________________________________

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