SCN: "Loveletter" e-mail worm (was: READ FIRST!!!BE AWARE OF...)

[J. Johnson]

First of all, a stiff reminder to Janos _and everyone else_ that turgid
messages to mailing lists about "don't even open your mail" is *NOT* the
way to warn others about e-mail viruses, worms, etc.  This is because such
messages have no authenticity, lead people to accept such lack of
authenticity as standard operating procedure, and thereby create a great
susceptibility to _hoax_ warnings, such as the infamous "Good Times" hoax.
Please note and regard that CERT reports they spend more time debunking
hoaxes than fighting real viruses or worms, and that CIAC no longer
reports on viruses for the same reason.  PLEASE DO NOT BE PART OF THE
PROBLEM!

[Now let me provide a model in telling you about the "Loveletter" e-mail
worm.  Note the inclusion of:  specific information, and reference to an
authoritative source for authentication of the information.]
---

There are reports today of new e-mail worm call "VBS/Loveletter" that does
extensive damage to computers running Windows 98 and Windows 2000, and
also Windows NT and Windows 95 if Visual Basic scripting (or WHS) is
enabled.  Note:  there is no threat to systems running Unix, such as SCN.

The worm is a Visual Basic attachment named "LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT.vbs"
(but depending on configuration the '.vbs' suffix might not be displayed)
in a message with the subject line of "ILOVEYOU".  If your mail reader
is configured to automatically "open" attachments (which is NOT a good
idea!), then--don't read that message!  (Better yet, don't let your
computer automatically open attachments.)

There is variant of this worm which comes with a subject of "Joke", or
"Very Funny", and which also propagates via IRC clients.

For more information (and additional links) see the authoritative Computer
Emergency Response Team website at www.cert.org. 

=== JJ =================================================================

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