VIRUS ALERT

[Art Johnson]

I DON‘T KNOW HOW PREVALENT THIS VIRUS IS BUT I PICKED IT UP A FEW DAYS AGO. THE NAME IS, W32/Badtrans@MM. It infects C:WINDOWS\SYSTEM\Kernel 32 EXE. All the signs of a virus were there and I was leery but intrigued by the screen name _brengun@lineone.net (Jim Curley). It was an expensive lesson my restore discs wouldn‘t work so I had to buy a new operating system which I‘m not too happy with.

 

[Mike Bobbitt]

It‘s a genuine virus alright. One of the characteristics seems to be the underscore (_) in front of the sender‘s e-mail address.

I‘ve received this virus from several legitimate people, but it always had the _ before their address. An attempt to prevent you from warning them, I suppose.

At any rate, it‘s been out for a while, so up to date virus definitions will detect and block it.

Cheers

 

[peanutshel]

I installed a FREE firewall called Zone Alarm and when I received an e-mail with the virus in it, I was lucky to have checked off the "check e-mail" section on it because Zone Alarm killed it the second I opened it. The e-mail was from a company I had sent a query to about K35 Loaders. The e-mail said "in reference to your question about K35 Loaders" so they are getting sneakier. If the first address in your address book is "000!!", then it can‘t send to all your addresses if you do catch a virus.

 

[Art Johnson]

Surprising enough I had just installed McAfee Virus and Fire wall and updated it. The virus was detected but could not be removed. The best I could do was quarantine it. Unfortunately the quarantined kernel affected my AOL 6 program and I was unable to get on line. Now my McAfee fire wall is not compatible with my XP system as are some of my other programs. It‘s a lovely way to start out the New Year.