FYI: Internet is suffering the largest worldwide virus attack ever.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

- Alert caused by Sobig.F, Blaster and Nachi.A:
Internet is suffering the largest worldwide virus attack ever -
Virus Alerts, by Panda Software (http://www.pandasoftware.com)

Madrid, August 21, 2003 - Internet is suffering the largest worldwide virus attack ever. The almost simultaneous appearance of the worms Blaster -and its variants-, Nachi.A and Sobig.F are threatening all types of users, from home users to corporate networks of all topologies.

Sobig.F has become the virus that has spread the widest in the shortest time in the history of computer viruses. However, up until now, despite its incredible rate of proliferation, this malicious code has caused fewer incidents than expected. This could be due to the fact that it is being spammed from infected computers and as a result, the probability of a computer being hit by this worm is extremely high. Furthermore, Sobig.F is converting the computers it infects into spam generators, collapsing networks in a matter of minutes.

The incredible proliferation rate of Sobig.F is also affecting large institutions and corporations. According to an article published by ZDNET http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/0,39020645,39115845,00.htm, in just one day the Internet service provider AOL (America Online) has received 11.5 million mail messages infected by this virus. This article also highlights that Sobig.F is affecting institutions and corporations like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the U.S. Department of Defense.

Similarly, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel http://www.jsonline.com/bym/tech/news/aug03/163652.asp has reported that CSX, the biggest railroad company in the USA, has had to suspend its services in the metropolitan Washington D.C area due to the activity of a computer virus.

The activity of Sobig.F is expect to increase when companies recover normal working activity, due to the large number of infected messages that have been accumulating in the mailboxes of web servers over the last few days.

At the same time, Blaster and its variants, and the Nachi.A worm are busy attacking home users through the RPC DCOM vulnerability in the Windows operating system. According to data collected by Panda Software's international technical support services, an extremely large number of computers have been infected by these worms around the globe.

However, not only home users are vulnerable to attack from Blaster and Nachi.A, but also corporate users. In fact, as a result of Nachi.A, the airline Air Canada has had to delay or even cancel flights, according to a report published by CNN http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/08/20/aircanada.virus.reut/index.html.

Luis Corrons, heads of Panda Software's Virus Lab believes that: "The appearance of these malicious codes within such a short space of time has significantly increased the probability of a computer being hit. The only way to combat them is by using updated antivirus programs and firewalls; if users are aware of this, the threat will slowly start receding."

In order to avoid falling victim these malicious code, Panda Software reminds users to treat all e-mails received with caution and update their antivirus solutions immediately. The multinational antivirus manufacturer has already released the updates, which ensure their antivirus solutions detect all of these viruses. Therefore, if your software is not configured to update automatically, you can update it from the company's website at http://www.pandasoftware.com/.

Similarly, Panda Software offers all users its free PQREMOVE utilities, designed to clean and restore computers affected by dangerous malicious code like Sobig.F or Blaster. These tools can be downloaded from, http://www.pandasoftware.com/downloads/utilities/.

Detailed information about Sobig.F, Blaster and Nachi.A and other malicious code is available from Panda Software's Virus Encyclopedia at: http://www.pandasoftware.com/virus_info/encyclopedia/

NOTE: The addresses above may not show up on your screen as single lines. This would prevent you from using the links to access the web pages. If this happens, just use the 'cut' and 'paste' options to join the pieces of the URL.

--

Forwarded email alert posted in full as a public service.

[Mari333]

1. I know, Ive had over 10 of these in my email

and thank god for my virus alert
I deleted them ALL and had deleted trash deleted..

[ferg]

2. 10? 10? I laugh at your 10.

I've got over 1,000.

[Mari333]

3. whoa!!

well, the Blaster worm got me....and wiped out everything...Cost me 118 bucks to get my PC fixed....if thats any solace...

[Cha]

7. Wow! Mari! I feel so lucky with the "blasterworm", then!

I had it but through some miracle was able to get on my own computer and and download a patch for it and knock on wood it is ok now!

I had visions of it "wiping out everything" because that's what the guy at roadrunner said would happen when I finally got someone to talk to. Come to think of it there were quite a few harrowing hours there.

I'm sorry for the loss of your files! :-(

[ferg]

8. well, I do tech-support and handle a public email address

So it's not like it's a private email account.

but, still, it's insane.

[gandalf]

4. That shows how necessary DARPA research and web monitoring is

After all, internet is important for the economy today.
So, Total Information Awareness and all that stuff should be put in place quickly.
What is Poindexter doing?

/sarcasm off

[Drifter]

5. This is clearly ...

Al Gore's fault. Isn't he the one who created the stupid thing in the first place ?

Another reason we can thank God (with help of the Supreme Court) that George W. Bush was choosen to lead this great nation.

</sarcasm>

Jesus- I have to go wash.

Cheers
Drifter

[Cha]

6. Thanks for this! So far I haven't gotten any strange e-mail!

But I had to work through the "blasterworm" and that was a big problem for about a day at my house! :-(

[wtmusic]

9. Mac G5 comes out early Sept.

Now's the time to make the switch...great G4's on sale...

[TahitiNut]

10. Yup.

My firewall has been very active thwarting probes on the 'signature' ports. On the 18th (and beginning of the 19th) the DDOS syn broadcasts were taking a heavy toll on performance until my ISP took the very unusual step of temporarily filtering that ICMP traffic and making 'tracert' and 'ping' unusable (sigh). My email filters have caught dozens of worm-laden messages daily. I'm still bemused at how ignorantly careless people are when using email and the Internet. Cannon fodder. :shrug:

[htuttle]

11. I get so many probes on my firewall on the windows/netbios ports...

...that I stopped logging them. The sheer quantity of log entries was threatening to fill my disk up.

I'm not even susceptible to the worms (I'm on OSX), but they try anyway.

[TahitiNut]

12. Well, my firewall logging ...

... has "flood protection" to prevent repetitive DOS attacks from overwhelming the wall.

[AlabamaYankee]

13. Another excellent reason to own a Mac

As long as Microsoft seems to be using the "flypaper" approach to internet security, very few people are writing viruses for the Mac. I have been getting a number of odd e-mails that are either blank or gibberish. The fact that my operating system is too outdated to be able to open attachments from Windows machines doesn't hurt either.

[regnaD kciN]

14. Tell me something I DON'T know...

A couple of evenings ago, I got 613 copies of SoBig.F in my inbox. I thought that would be about it, but they kept coming, through this morning. What makes it worrisome is that Norton's e-mail scanner, with the latest virus definition files, caught all the incoming mail through yesterday afternoon; however, last night, several copies made it through the scan (although Norton did catch them if I tried to examine the attachment after it had been received). Mutation, anyone?

[northzax]

15. well I don't have the bug

but I've probably gotten at least 500 emails containing it, and it chose my address to spoof from someone else's machine. I came in to 317 emails telling me I was infected. and I wasn't.

[SharonAnn]

17. Yes, me too. My address is being spoofed on someone's

infected emails but so far I can't tell who the someone is.

Not much fun to receive these messages saying I sent a virus. I'm really careful about this because it's my business account and my professional account too.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

16. My e-mail is weird

I sent out notifications of my new broadband address to 54 friends all over the U.S. and in Japan yesterday, after having sent similar notifications to clients in Japan, the U.S., and England on Monday evening.

My clients seem to have gotten the message.

However, since sending out the notification to my friends, the only e-mails I have gotten on my new account have been mailing list digests and communiques from clients, no acknowledgments or bounce notices from any of the friend notifications.

Usually, when I have changed my e-mail in the past, I have gotten at least a few acknowledgments or bounce notices in response. This time, nothing.

Could someone's filters have mistaken my 54-person message for spam?

Note: I'm a Mac OS9.1 user, if that makes any difference.

[maveric]

18. D'ya think its a right-wing plot to disable the internet? Many wingnuts

complain about the net being evil and a breeding ground for dissenters. It give out too much information I guess and the real truth might get out.

All we murikans need is Fox news.

But seriously do you think that PNAC/BFEE,etc had a hand in these viruses?
:tinfoilhat: