New Virus Warning!!

[C2 RIBS]

Here is a new virus which might affect your computers, Take care!!
Warning - Valentine Newar Virus

Newar Virus Alert

Antivirus suppliers such as Zone Alarm have reported a new Newar Virus also known as a Storm Worm. It comes in the form of an email and contains an attachment called with_love.exe. Subject lines have been reported so far as "Sent with Love" and "Falling in love with you". This virus will infect your PC and start infecting others.

Users who click on the link included in the e-mail, will be taken to a website showing a huge heart and be invited to download the file with_love.exe containing the Virus.

Over the last few months there have been numerous versions of the Newar Virus. At Halloween emails were of dancing skeletons so there could be more versions of this virus in the future.

Be careful over the next few weeks and check your email thoroughly because with_love.exe virus can come from even trusted sources and friends. When receiving emails containing executable attachments (.exe) or links to websites be cautious and never open un trusted files.

[Andy Moore]

PCs are faeces.

Get A Mac.

[BogMonster]

PCs are just popular, nobody wants to attack a minority platform

Just don't open .exe files. Not that complicated really

[peterb]

Agree with the "never open a .exe" but also the following should be left unopened as well:-

.com
.bat
.scr
.pif

Theres probably a few more I could add but I plead memory failure as my head is numb from a Whisky Tasting session last night

[Cookee]

Snopes.com says it is a real threat - http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/storm.asp

[Andy Moore]

Originally Posted by BogMonster

PCs are just popular, nobody wants to attack a minority platform

Or have you considered that OS X is inherently more secure than shitty Windoze?

[DJL]

Originally Posted by Andy Moore

Or have you considered that OS X is inherently more secure than shitty Windoze?

It's not though - not by a long way. Apple are very slow releasing patches for security issues too.

Stephen is entirely correct. If you were trying to build an army of computers for you next spam email campaign, you’re hardly going to choose Macs. There are probably more zombie windows pc's out there than there are computers running OSX.

[Cookee]

Originally Posted by Andy Moore

Or have you considered that OS X is inherently more secure than shitty Windoze?

I asked my local computer geek about Macs, and he said they are getting attacked more and more!

[Andy Moore]

Originally Posted by Cookee

I asked my local computer geek about Macs, and he said they are getting attacked more and more!

I have been using Macs, full-time, for 15 years. I have never, ever seen even one smidgen of a virus. And that goes for all the folk I know that use Macs. NOT ONE INSTANCE OF A VIRUS.

[J S]

I had the reason why macs are more secure explained to me by a very very experienced person. It is just basically there a much more holes in a windows system to attack because it has to be able to run on many more computers different makes and models etc... os X ( which is mac operating system ) only has to run on apple hardware. Therefore can be programmed much more securely much easier.

James

[BogMonster]

Originally Posted by Andy Moore

Or have you considered that OS X is inherently more secure than shitty Windoze?

That may be the case but it is also the case that the vast majority of viruses are caught due to user stupidity in either opening something they shouldn't have or not taking precautions - the "it won't happen to me" head-in-sand attitude that also leads hopelessly optimistic people to not wear seatbelts or crash helmets.

I have only seen a handful of viruses in the last few years - most get filtered out at ISP level - and I can't remember the last time I actually got infected by one on any of the computers either at home or work but it was probably seven or eight years ago. Certainly not an inconvenience that would have great bearing on my choice of OS.

It's odd how Mac users always feel there is something to defend. I used to be much the same in the days when I had an Amiga - though PC's in those days were pretty dire by comparison.

[Jono]

Originally Posted by BogMonster

...
It's odd how Mac users always feel there is something to defend. I used to be much the same in the days when I had a Betamax -....

...know how you feel.

[RAD]

Most families have PC's, more around so the Programmers can attack more people.

Most Email systems should stop .exe but there are always those that dont.

If in doubt, hit the DELETE button!

[jyasaki]

Originally Posted by Andy Moore

I have been using Macs, full-time, for 15 years. I have never, ever seen even one smidgen of a virus. And that goes for all the folk I know that use Macs. NOT ONE INSTANCE OF A VIRUS.

From a Mac AV website:

ClamXav is a free virus checker for Mac OS X. It uses a slightly modified version of the tried, tested and very popular clamav open source antivirus engine as a back end.
Back in the days before OS X, the number of viruses which attacked Macintosh users totalled somewhere between about 60 and 80. Today, the number of viruses attacking OS X users is...NONE!

From About.com:

Mac OS X Virus: Inqtana.A Worm
OSX/Inqtana.A is a Java-based worm that exploits the directory traversal vulnerability in the Bluetooth file and object exchange services in Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger).

Leap.A aka Oompa-Loompa virus
The Leap.A (aka Oompa-Loompa) infects applications in Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) running on PowerPC processors.

Mac OS X flaws
Multiple vulnerabilities found in Mac OS X Panther.

The Microsoft Office macro viruses can affect files on a Mac as well.

Not as bad a problem as on a PC. Yet.

My $.02;

jky