The Sobig Windows virus that overwhelmed e-mail inboxes around the world is one of the fastest growing viruses ever. Full story from the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3169573.stm "hmm i wonder what this virus.exe is doing attached to my mail, better run it and find out" Its offical people are getting MORE stupid.
Like I said in another thread - how hard is it for people to learn that you don't open email attachments unless you are expecting them (and even so, have updated your virus defs and scanned first). These viruses have been going for as long as I remember, and yet people still open them and haven't learned yet? Granted some of them infect you as soon as you even preview them in outlook, but still ...
That's why turning off the preview pane is a fab-tastic idea (especially if you're a moron ). The majority of my email is scanned by my webhost, then I read over the subjects in Mailwasher Pro (spam and anything dodgy looking is deleted from the server) and then Norton AntiVirus 2003 checks it all as I download it into Outlook Express 6.0 (where I still have the preview pane turned on, as I'm not stupid enough to open an email with an attachment I'm not expecting - which hasn't been through MailWasher first that is). When was the last time my PC got infected with a virus? Hmm... almost 10 years ago. A good ole DOS virus, back in the days when they wrecked hard drives good 'n' proper. Anyone who blindly clicks on an exe/pif/scr file received via email needs shooting (repeatedly, in the head).
Damn right, even my dad doesn't make that kind of mistake (complete moron when it comes to computers), although he did fall for that hoax virus that told you to delete a file in the system folder. He even boasted that he removed it all by himself.
I have cleaned out more viruses then I evver wanted to in my families computers. My wife recently opened an attachement (Even though I told here NEVER to do so) She said she opened it as she didn't know whether or not it was a virus, and by opening it norton would identify it for her. Well norton did identify it, just before it totaly locked her system down, denied access to the internet, and then started sending out packets. My routers firewall protected my PC (And the outgoing packets) But still, her PC has to be totaly wiped out and re-installed. Good thing she is getting a new PC soon. But this time I am putting more locks into it.
Hahahaha... Yea, I remember that one! It was the "Teddy Bear Virus" or something like that wasn't it? It's the complete morons that spread this stuff. When the Teddy Bear hoax came around, a lot of people here at work got the email and I was finding that they just deleted the file like the email told them to do without contacting IT first. I did a broadcast message to the entire hospital informing people NOT to delete the file and contact IT if there were any questions. Within 2 days, I received a dozen or so replies telling me that they were "infected" and deleted the file as I requested. Morons. I've been saying this for years and I'll say it again, I think people should be required to have a license or certification of some sort to operate a computer.
I think that's the same idea hackers and virus writers have. If they're too moronic to know what is/isn't a virus they shouldn't be using computers and so the virus just formats their hard drive and does everyone a favour.
yesterday my cousin called and said his system and his dad's had the msblast virus... my response was "dude, you're like two weeks behind in your infections!" and then I helped him after the laughter subsided of course.
I got hit by MSBlast, I'd been away in Greece for a week came back home and switched on my PC. Connected to the internet and my PC was taken out within 5 minutes.
