Tuesday, May 3, 2005
New computer virus causing headaches here in the Valley and around the world
A new computer email virus is causing problems here in the valley. The Sober Worm Virus now accounts for three quarters of all Internet virus traffic. We have more on how the virus spread so quickly around the world.
Bill Thompson said he got an email virus a couple years ago. It destroyed his hard drive.
"It's also a major annoyance that every time you check your mailbox, and there's a hundred messages and ninety are from people that you don't know."
Now there's a new virus, the Sober Worm. It's won't erase your computer, but because it copies and sends itself to everyone on your address book, it can slow everything down, including your email provider.
"Basically, it's going to bring a lot of networks down to a crawl if it propagates quickly," said Shawn Stevens with the PC Club in Palm Desert.
Some valley businesses have gotten thousands of virus emails an hour. They have headings like "Your email has been blocked" and come with zip files with a variety of names.
"Pretends it's an urgent email, something you're expecting and you need to open it right away," said IT Director BJ Daup.
This new version of the Sober Worm is particularly hard to catch. That's because there's so many different subject headings it comes under, so many different messages that come with it, and it even comes in 2 languages.
The German version of the virus is an email promising free World Cup 2006 tickets. European news sources reported that unsuspecting soccer fans crashed the World Cup's email computers as a result.
Our own computer expert, BJ Daup, likened the worm to more organic viruses.
"If you only have one strain of the flu, you can catch it, wipe it out. We don't have to worry about outbreaks in the future. But the flu has the ability to morph and change, so do viruses, so it makes it more difficult to catch and eliminate."
Meantime, Internet providers like Time Warner Cable said tech support calls are up slightly, and they're taking steps to keep the virus out of their company.
"If there is anything that penetrates our system, there's a company wide email goes out and everybody's told what to do and what to open and what not to open," said Tom Snyder with Time Warner Cable.
And that's the good news. The Sober Worm only infects your computer if you open the attachment. So before you double-click that file, double check that the person who sent you the email actually meant to.
If you suspect your computer is infected with the Sober Worm, there are several free anti-virus programs that can remove it from your PC. Click Here to learn more.
posted on May 3, 2005 09:25:30 PM new
Wow. Scary. And couldn't someone send this exact message out (a virus), complete with the "click here" at the end, and hook a ton of people?
(I know this message by hoemke is on the up and up.)
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posted on May 4, 2005 12:10:21 AM new
I have 2 emails today that hotmail would not open because there was a virus or worm in it. All emails that are sent to Hotmail are scanned by Trend
posted on May 4, 2005 03:29:55 AM new
The SBC/Yahoo DSL service also scans the emails before they arrive in my box and deletes the virus. I've rec'd only two suspicious emails in the last two weeks so I don't consider that too bad.
posted on May 4, 2005 04:31:44 AM new
Hmmm.... I haven't kept up with the latest prosecution statistics, but I've the ideal deterrent that puts the pain and suffering right where it belongs: An international agreement with pay-per-view canings of the virus originator. Can ya dig it?
posted on May 4, 2005 11:30:34 AM new
I received about 40 more overnight in my Hotmail account. All of the attachments are zip files and are 73k in size. I wish Micro$oft would filter these...
posted on May 4, 2005 11:37:40 AM new
I started seeing them pop up in my Yahoo bulk mail folder on Sunday, and FIGURED IT WAS A VIRUS thing. I just keep deleting them... and scanning both laptops for a virus.
posted on May 4, 2005 02:18:56 PM new
In the last two days, Norton has detected and deleted three viruses, many more than usually come to my computer in a month or more. And my impression today is that the computer world is operating verrrrry slowly.
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posted on May 5, 2005 01:37:07 PM new
Overnight, I received about 50 more emails with the virus. Just a hassle to delete. I'd guess the virus must be slowing Internet traffic to some extent, and causing problems with some email accounts.
