From: David JL Rieger (drieger@olac.berkeley.edu)
Date: Tue Mar 06 2001 - 14:20:54 PST
Good Day Folks,
According to the Associated Press there is an Anna Kournikova derivative
that is affecting organizations. In short, please do not execute
(double-click) attachments from people you do not know. If you have
questions please do not hesitate to contact me (or your Departmental
support personnel).
All cordial Regards,
david rieger
4:41 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A destructive
computer virus hit at least 30 organizations
and one federal agency Tuesday, security
experts said.
Like the most recent widespread virus that used the name of
tennis star Anna
Kournikova, this new program called ``Naked Wife'' takes
advantage of users
``baser instincts,'' an antivirus company spokeswoman said.
Steve Trilling, director of research at the Symantec
Antivirus Research Center, said
about 20 of Symantec's clients in Canada, the United States
and Europe had been
hit.
Trilling said the virus, which appears with the subject line
``FW: Naked Wife,''
deletes almost all of a computer's vital system files. It
also sends itself out to
everyone in the user's e-mail address book.
``It essentially destroys your Windows operating system,''
he said.
The virus e-mail contains an attachment called
``NakedWife.exe.'' Like most
viruses, the recipient's computer is only infected if the
receiver runs the attachment,
and major antivirus companies have released software that
detects and removes it.
Susan Orbach, spokeswoman for Trend Micro, said her company
has received
reports of infections from 10 corporate clients, including
two large
telecommunications firms, a federal agency and a
``multinational conglomerate,'' she
said.
``This is not any new technology we haven't seen before,''
Orbach said. ``It's social
engineering to take advantage of our baser instincts.''
Both Trilling and Orbach suggested that corporate network
administrators block
incoming program attachments, since it seems that computer
users will continue to
click on suspicious attachments, no matter how many times
they're stung.
``Very few people have a legitimate reason to receive
executable files in e-mail,''
Orbach said. ``Haven't people learned?''
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following was automatically added to this message by the list server:
For information about Micronet, its meetings and events, and its
mailing list, including information on subscribing and unsubscribing,
see the Micronet Web site at <URL:http://wss.berkeley.edu/micronet/>.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Mar 06 2001 - 14:26:48 PST