Saturday, October 30, 2004

virus that disguises itself as a joke is spreading

Joke e-mail virus tricks users


A virus that disguises itself as a joke is spreading
rapidly across the net.

Anti-virus firms are issuing high-level warnings about
the new version of the Bagle e-mail program that seems
to be catching a lot of people out.

The Windows virus grabs e-mail addresses from
Microsoft Outlook and uses its own mail sending
software to spread itself to new victims.

When it infects a machine, the Bagle variant turns off
security measures that usually protect PCs.

Spreading fast

The new variant is called Bagle.AT, Bagle.BB and
Bagle.AU and the attachment bearing the virus code is
labelled as either "joke" or "price".


BAGLE SUBJECT LINES
Re:,
Re: Hello
Re: Hi
Re: Thank you!
Re: Thanks :)
The body of the virus usually contains nothing but a
smiley or emoticon.

The virus can strike computers running Windows 95, 98,
ME, NT, 2000 and XP.

Users will be infected if they open the attachment
that travels with the e-mail.

As well as plundering Microsoft Outlook for e-mail
addresses to send itself to, Bagle.AT also tries to
turn off the firewall and security centre services on
Windows XP machines.

BBC News Online has received five warnings about the
virus from security companies. Finnish company
F-Secure gave the virus its second highest threat
level.

"We've had several reports all over the world," said
Mikko Hypponen, director of anti-virus research for
F-Secure.

Security firm Network Box said that it stopped more
than 30,000 copies an hour of the virus as the
outbreak reached a peak.

Black Spider said it had stopped more than 1 million
copies of Bagle.AT since the outbreak began at 0630
BST (0530 GMT).

Anti-virus firms urged users to be wary of unexpected
e-mail messages bearing attachments and to update
their software to ensure they are protected against
the latest threats.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3965721.stm

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

Microsoft has discovered 21 new security vulnerabilities

MICROSOFT RELEASES UNPRECEDENTED NUMBER OF SECURITY PATCHES

Problem: Microsoft has discovered 21 new security vulnerabilities in its software products, most notably the Windows operating system.

Solution: Download the latest security patches for all versions of Windows by turning on the "Automatic Update" feature within Windows or by manually downloading the patches from http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com

October 13, 2004
Microsoft has just released an extraordinary number of security updates designed to patch holes and flaws in its software products. Several of these critical updates are applicable to all versions of Windows. Failure to install these patches could result in a computer becoming hijacked by an internet intruder when that computer visits certain websites.

Almost all of these security updates were included in the recently-released "Service Pack 2" for Windows XP. Therefore users of Windows XP who have installed Service Pack 2 only need to install two of the new patches released yesterday. Additionally Microsoft has instructed users of its Microsoft Office software (which contains Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, etc.) to download security patches for the Office programs. To do this, please visit the Office Update website at http://office.microsoft.com and look for the words in the upper-right side of the website that say "Check for updates."