Virus warning

[bill london <london@moscow.com>]

> See below for a tale of woe with the moral:

Beware of attachments entitled Very Funny
BL


>
> >
> >Just a quick note to let you all know about the computer virus that hit my
> >PC over the holidays.  As you might expect, it came in as an attached file
> >from a close friend that looked benign enough.
> >
> >The virus was a new version of the "LoveBug" virus and came as attachments
> >to four emails from my friend.  The attachments were listed sequentially
> >as: VeryFunny, VeryFunny2, VeryFunny3, VeryFunny4.
> >
> >I have to admit that i screwed up!  I clicked on VeryFunny and within
> >seconds knew that I was in trouble.  I unplugged my telephone line to
> >prevent anything going back out and just had to watch.  It was obvious that
> >the virus was attempting to get into MS Outlook, find a mailing list there
> >and email itself to any addresses it found.  The good thing is that I've
> >never used Outlook, so there wasn't a mailing list there - and this slowed
> >the virus down a little.  And, nothing was emailed out.
> >
> >While trying to replicate itself to others, the virus also installed a worm
> >virus way down deep (maybe 8 or 9 layers in) and attached itself to every
> >JPG file on both of my PC's hard-drives.  It also loaded in additional
> >infected files in program folders, windows folders, et al.  UGH!!
> >
> >It even got around McAfee virus check/scan.
> >
> >The upshot is that there were more than 3,000 infected files that had to be
> >taken care of, software to be re-installed, and JPG files fixed or
> >found.  I ended up having to use Norton AntiVirus to purge the system and
> >quarantine the affected files.
> >
> >As of 12 hours ago, I think that I'm back to about 85% or 90%.
> >
> >Now I'm running both McAfee and Norton simultaneously.  Hope this doesn't
> >happen again.