Re: OT: viruses after the downtime?

En réponse à Barbara Barrett :


>Anyone else getting this problem?
Well, everyone using Windows is having the same problem right now :)) . 
It's so bad it made it into the news here, and I've received ten mails 
containing the virus just during the time I've been reading the posts from 
Conlang :)) .

However, you shouldn't be too frightened of the virus. Although it's a bad 
one once activated, you still need to actually click on the attachment to 
get it activated. Moreover, all antivirusses should catch it now (AVG not 
only catches it, it does it as the mail is downloaded, so you never 
actually get the chance to see the attachment).

However, there is a bigger threat, which happens to be related to MyDoom: a 
derivate of it is a malware rather than a virus, and is thus not caught by 
most antivirus software. Moreover, this variant doesn't need to be clicked 
on to start: it just needs to be downloaded to be automatically activated. 
And it copies itself into System Restore so you can never get rid of it 
unless you deactivate System Restore. Luckily, Adaware catches this 
variant. But to prevent it from getting in, you need to ask your email 
client to download the headers of your incoming mail only, so that you can 
delete the wrong ones without having to actually download them. After two 
days fighting this worm, I finally managed to get rid of it and I hope it's 
gonna stays that way :)) .

Christophe Grandsire.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

You need a straight mind to invent a twisted conlang.