Simviation Forum - VERY IMPORTANT

Reply #45 - Aug 20^th, 2003 at 10:48pm

BFMF Offline
Colonel
Pacific Northwest

Gender:
Posts: 19820

What I want to know is why I got some of these e-mails from senders supposedly as FSTipster, library@avsim, francois, WebPA, BMan, Y2Craigie, Webmaster@simviation.com, even some FSgateway addresses.

Are these people really infected with this virus and have me in their address books, or is virus just a personal attack against our hobby?

COMPLETED: If Anyone Cares, Here's A Map Of My Current FSX Flight Around The World

My Reality Check Bounced

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Reply #46 - Aug 20^th, 2003 at 11:24pm

geezer Offline
Colonel
Raleigh, NC

Posts: 30

This is the SoBig virus guys in case you already don't know. It spoofs addresses on the infected computers and sends out junk to overload the Internet.

There is no personal attack. It is just that some computers that are not protected have been used as middle men to broadcast these e-mails to lists of addresses that reside on them. In most cases, the users don't even realize what is going on with their machines. It comes mostly from users that either don't have av on their machines or don't keep their pattern files up to date.

You can read about the viruses and worms we have been contending with over the last few days here:

http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/

Keep your av pattern files up to date and use a good firewall. If you are one of these guys I have heard about who doesn't have av installed because "it slows my connection down" or "I don't have time" or "I can't afford it" then you are probably the person who is enabling these virus cretins to do their business. No virus distributor is going to be the one to mount the attack. All they do is scan for ports on on-line machines, when they find an open one they go in and plant their bugs. If the bug is discovered by an av program it is gone. If not, it does its work when it is scheduled to or when it is contacted to do so by the main distributor.

If you keep your av pattern files up to date and use real time scan when you are on line, you will not have any trouble.

If you "run bare" you are either going to get infected, you are now infected, or you are going to infect someone else.

Imagine...

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Reply #47 - Aug 21^st, 2003 at 1:19am

Professor Brensec Offline
Colonel
Can't you give me a couple
more inches, Adam?
SYDNEY - AUSTRALIA

Gender:
Posts: 2955

Quote:

I've recieved over 100 of these since yesterday. Undecided

I'm getting about 1 every 5 minutes. And like everyone else, I'm getting a lot from FS sites; flightsim.com, flight1.com, simmarket.com, simflight.com. Luckily nothing from simviation yet.

Would deleting my addresses in my address book help prevent this from spreading?

I'm not a 'member' at any other Sim sight other than Simviation.
So, I imagine the few that I have got (the 'you've been approved' ones) have probably come through another source.
I'm not getting heaps of them though, just the occasional one or two, but they're pretty regular.

Since the Mrs got an email from a friend that had that 'worm' thing that accessed your address book, we no longer maintain an address book, except for the 'paper one'.................lol (fortunately there were only a few names in it and she was able to warn everyone before they opened it.

We got McAfee as part of a Windows package and I've never been able to 'enable' the 'email scan' facility. So I've found the whole thing pretty useless.
I'd like to get Norton 2003. They have that at work and it checks everything. Everytime you open even your own programs it comes up and says it's scanning for virus's etc.
I am however in the process of downloading the 'trial version' of the one recommended by Rollerball. It's 8+ Mb, so it's taking a while.
If it's good, I'll keep it for a while and see how it goes. Grin

Thanks for the advice all. Wink

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Reply #48 - Aug 21^st, 2003 at 12:23pm

Deputy Offline
Colonel
Hillsboro, Oregon

Gender:
Posts: 2090

Some good news - There has been a break in the case, somebody found an I.P. address. Keep it quiet, but I will keep you all informed.

Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when I come for you?&&&&Iustita Omnibus&&Justice for All&&&&Women are: attractive, single, mentally stable. Pick two.&& &&Yes, we drive on the right-hand-side of the road. Yes, I parked on the left-hand-side of the road. Yes, I blocked traffic for a picture. &&&&&&

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Reply #49 - Aug 21^st, 2003 at 4:22pm

DanielF Offline
Colonel
Virigina, USA

Gender:
Posts: 507

It was quiet for me for a long time, but I got another one today at 2:20. Tongue

But just one is a lot better than 100. Grin

&&FS Evolution&&&&DanielF

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Reply #50 - Aug 21^st, 2003 at 6:43pm

Lethal.Ambition Offline
Colonel
They call me John.
Florida

Gender:
Posts: 1563

I have the McAfee Virus-scan and it comes with HAWK, a component that monitors what is being sent through my outlook.....if it notices that e-mail is being sent to more 25 percent of my contacts ( I set the percentage ) and the whole thing freeze until I set to send it or not. I love it. I sent 4 attachments to a friend once and it alerted me

Oderint Dum Metuant - Let them hate as long as they fear.&&Proud member of the =XE= Xtreme Eagles&&Oderint Dum Metuant&&

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Reply #51 - Aug 21^st, 2003 at 11:29pm

Chuck58 Offline
Lieutenant Colonel
I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

Posts: 9

I opened my emal and found 127 of the things in it. As of right now, 9:29pm, I've gotten only 3 today. Fortunately my av (ETrust) caught every one of them.

It's an interesting but apparently relatively harmless thing, more a nuisance than anything. There are far, far worse worms, trojans, and viruses out there.

If anybody is on the Internet these days without a good antivirus and firewall, they're really tempting fate. I use ETrust av (2 scan engines) and LooknStop firewall. Both are rated highly at Wilders.org, a security forum and sometimes I wonder if those are enough.

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Reply #52 - Aug 22^nd, 2003 at 5:09am

Professor Brensec Offline
Colonel
Can't you give me a couple
more inches, Adam?
SYDNEY - AUSTRALIA

Gender:
Posts: 2955

I keep getting one every day that seems suspicious to me. It comes with an attachment.

The sender is 'Got StudentLoan?' and the subject field is 'ReduceYourPayments'.

As I said, I never do anything but delete everything I'm not perfectly sure I ask for. (Anyone who mants me badly enough, that I would want to talk to, has my phone number!!

I must admit that I did not run McAfee all the time, only when I was on the Net. The reason was that many of my programs (especially CFS2), were very slow and I needed as much Ram as I could muster. I have downloaded the AVG program suggested by RollerBall, and it seems to be more comprehensive and easier to understand than McAfee, which came with my Windows Millenium OP.
As of today, I have solved the long standing problem of the Compaq Pressario RAM strip. I now have 384 MB of RAM. So I can run AV all the time now.

(P.S. For anyone interested, I have posted in the 'Hardware' forum under 'Finally, some Compaq RAM'.
I have included the explainatuion as to why all the chips I tried never worked, and why the one I have now, does.) Grin

« Last Edit: Aug 23^rd, 2003 at 12:41am by Professor Brensec »

&&&&http://www.ra.online-plus.biz&&&&&&I cried because I had no shoes - until I saw a man who had no feet.&&&&Dell Dimension 8100 - Intel P4 1.7 Gb - 512 RD Ram - nVidia GeForce 128 mb FX5200.

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Reply #53 - Aug 22^nd, 2003 at 1:28pm

Fozzer Offline
Colonel
An elderly FS 2004 addict!
Hereford. England. EGBS.

Posts: 24861

Having had the virus W32KLEZ in the past, and remembering all the trouble it caused to all the addressees in my address book, I now keep my address book empty, and all the addresses are hand written in a paper note-book.
The only affect is that I have to write-out the full address each time I post mail, but at least it stops the circulation of the virus to others if I should I receive it.
At the moment my system is clear. I have the latest Norton up-dates, and also have Zone Alarm running.
I think that I read on the Microsoft site that the virus does not affect Windows '98 users, only XP, NT, and 2000 users.
I run Windows '98 SE... Grin

...!

Cheers all... 8)...!
Paul.
(England).

P.S. It's interesting to note that my Norton up-dates go into warp-drive every time I log-on now... Shocked

...!

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Reply #54 - Aug 23^rd, 2003 at 12:47am

Professor Brensec Offline
Colonel
Can't you give me a couple
more inches, Adam?
SYDNEY - AUSTRALIA

Gender:
Posts: 2955

Hey Foz,

I do the same, I don't keep anything in the address book. But to save time and trouble, I keep a Notepad Doc. with all the names and addresses in 'MY Documents'.
It's in Alphabetical order, so all I have to do is copy and paste from that. It saves having to individually type out each addressee, and possibly 'misprinting' and having it returned 'no such addressee'.

Try that. There's no way a Virus will find a Notepad Doc that has nothing to do with the email system, and then recognise the characters as 'email addresses'. Is there? Grin

&&&&http://www.ra.online-plus.biz&&&&&&I cried because I had no shoes - until I saw a man who had no feet.&&&&Dell Dimension 8100 - Intel P4 1.7 Gb - 512 RD Ram - nVidia GeForce 128 mb FX5200.

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Reply #55 - Aug 23^rd, 2003 at 4:19am

Fozzer Offline
Colonel
An elderly FS 2004 addict!
Hereford. England. EGBS.

Posts: 24861

Quote:

Hey Foz,

I do the same, I don't keep anything in the address book. But to save time and trouble, I keep a Notepad Doc. with all the names and addresses in 'MY Documents'.
It's in Alphabetical order, so all I have to do is copy and paste from that. It saves having to individually type out each addressee, and possibly 'misprinting' and having it returned 'no such addressee'.

Try that. There's no way a Virus will find a Notepad Doc that has nothing to do with the email system, and then recognise the characters as 'email addresses'. Is there? Grin

Hi Bren...!
I had considered that long ago... Wink

...!
...but...
according to Sod's Law, anything you put on your computer will disappear in a puff of smoke the next time your computer crashes.... Cry

...!
...so...
no alternative to the good-old pen and paper... Grin

just like the olden days... 8)...!

...I also keep all my log-in names and password details, payware key details, etc, in a paper note book in front of me for the same reason....VERY IMPORTANT.. Shocked

...!

If my 'puter goes tits-up I still have all my important "stuff" in my little black book... Grin

...!
(Can't rely on the old memory any more..).... Cry

...LOL...!

Cheers mate... Grin

...!
Paul.
(England).

P.S. thinking about it some more, a good alternative is to keep important details on a seperate floppy disk...
I have all the service schedules for my bike on floppy disk, 'cos I dont want to loose them... 8)...!

Dell Dimension 5000 BTX Tower. Win7 Home Edition, 32 Bit. Intel Pentium 4, dual 2.8 GHz. 2.5GB RAM, nVidia GF 9500GT 1GB. SATA 500GB + 80GB. Philips 17" LCD Monitor. Micronet ADSL Modem only. Saitek Cyborg Evo Force. FS 2004 + FSX. Briggs and Stratton Petrol Lawn Mower...Motor Bikes. Gas Cooker... and lots of musical instruments!.... ...!
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Reply #56 - Aug 23^rd, 2003 at 5:47am

Professor Brensec Offline
Colonel
Can't you give me a couple
more inches, Adam?
SYDNEY - AUSTRALIA

Gender:
Posts: 2955

You got in with the floppy bit just as I was planning to send this suggestion:

Why not back up the Notepad info on a floppy like I do.

That way it's handy and retrievable if you PC dies. Grin

Copying and pasting is certainly less trouble than punching the info in everytime. No room for errors either. Grin

&&&&http://www.ra.online-plus.biz&&&&&&I cried because I had no shoes - until I saw a man who had no feet.&&&&Dell Dimension 8100 - Intel P4 1.7 Gb - 512 RD Ram - nVidia GeForce 128 mb FX5200.

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Reply #57 - Aug 24^th, 2003 at 11:45pm

loomex Offline
Colonel
My 1969 Ludwig "pre-Bohnam"
with extra stuff
FAA Ident KITH

Gender:
Posts: 1853

I have gotten over 200 in the past three days. I finaily got one from the simV site today

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Reply #58 - Aug 25^th, 2003 at 9:28am

Scottler Offline
Colonel
Albany, New York USA

Gender:
Posts: 5989

Just a reminder to everyone, even though I've mentioned it earlier in the thread...

The Sobig virus is programmed to self-destruct on September 10th.

Hang in there guys...

Great edit, Bob.&&&&&&Google it. &&&&www.google.com

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