New Virus Being Posted on Newsgroups
Jul 24, 2004 | 2:20 pm
#1
Original Poster
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend, In Memoriam
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Yiron, Israel
Programs: Bates Motel Plat
Posts: 69,201
New Virus Being Posted on Newsgroups
A virus purporting to show images of Osama bin Laden's suicide popped up on the Internet Friday, designed to entice recipients to open a file that unleashes malicious software code, security experts said.
The virus was attached to a message that was posted on over 30,000 usenet newsgroups and is not being spread via e-mail, said Web security vendor Sophos.
The virus was attached to a message that was posted on over 30,000 usenet newsgroups and is not being spread via e-mail, said Web security vendor Sophos.
Jul 24, 2004 | 8:02 pm
#3
Original Poster
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend, In Memoriam
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Yiron, Israel
Programs: Bates Motel Plat
Posts: 69,201
As this is appearing on bulletin boards, I wanted to warn F/Ters not to link to such a site should it be posted on F/T. (There is no point in waiting until after people have their computers screwed up by it.)
What forum would be more suitable?
What forum would be more suitable?
Jul 25, 2004 | 1:57 am
#4
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Programs: lapsed UA 1K (now a lowly 2P), HGP Platinum
Posts: 9,607
Originally Posted by Dovster
As this is appearing on bulletin boards, I wanted to warn F/Ters not to link to such a site should it be posted on F/T. (There is no point in waiting until after people have their computers screwed up by it.)
What forum would be more suitable?
What forum would be more suitable?
FlyerTalk is not a usenet newsgroup. You may have noticed that you can't attach files to posts on FlyerTalk, so there would be no way to infect anyone here.
It's also dangerous to propagate myths like just clicking a link can unleash a virus on your computer.
Even if someone were to link to something like this, the user would still have to authorize the download and approve with an enormous box that says "Don't run untrusted programs" the running of the unknown program.
I have to say that I have very little sympathy for people who run unknown code on their computers just to see the latest farting osama kissing bush joke program.
Furthermore, viruses are rarely deployed through weblinks because it's far more traceable than the anonymity of a usenet posting.
Jul 25, 2004 | 12:21 pm
#5
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: FTFOE
Programs: TalkBoard: We discuss / ad nauseum things that mean / so very little
Posts: 10,225
And again, it has nothing to do with the operation of FT's servers or the vBulletin software. Technical Issues is for FT's technical issues, not its (l)users' "I did something stupid and now my computer doesn't work" technical issues.
FewMiles..
FewMiles..
Jul 27, 2004 | 2:31 am
#6
Join Date: Feb 2001
Programs: IHG Diamond, HH Gold, Marriott Silver
Posts: 4,345
Originally Posted by robb
It's also dangerous to propagate myths like just clicking a link can unleash a virus on your computer.
Idiots who download executables from unknown sources will get infected. Other people won't. Warning messages will likely be ignored by the former group and simply annoy the latter group.
More importantly, there are hundreds of worms and viruses out there. If you were to try to warn everyone about all of them, we would be constantly swamped with such warnings.