Author: Christophe Theron
Date: 12:23:00 05/04/00
Go up one level in this thread
On May 04, 2000 at 12:22:45, Frederic Friedel wrote:
>On May 04, 2000 at 11:59:58, Djordje Vidanovic wrote:
>
>>What do you mean by "last night"? Problem is that a friend of his just made an
>>update, probably a couple of minutes ago. The file is dated May 5 and as
>>Indonesia is almost a day ahead, we seem to running behind, both figuratively
>>and literally.
>>
>
>The full source is now freely available on the Internet, so every third-rate
>hacker can make his own variant of his "<i hate go to school>" [sic] virus. They
>are going to be very difficult to find or shield against.
>
>This morning I lectured everybody on how never to open executable attachments to
>emails. Now I discover that this is not enough. The file name of visual basic
>script is LOVE LETTER FOR YOU.TXT.vbs. Most people have their file extensions
>switched off (I believe this is the default in Windows?!) so the attachment
>appears as LOVE LETTER FOR YOU.TXT and looks like a text file.
Yes, this is the default in Windows. Extensions are turned off, because
Micro//soft believes that users are so stupid that showing the extensions will
confuse them.
Which is highly ironical if you think about how complex this system is, anyway,
for most users.
Christophe
> So even cautious
>people click on it, expecting notepad or whatever to fire up and display the
>text. Instead the worm is executed and Windows does the rest (deleting files,
>sending mass emails, even from other computers in the local network). Clever.
>Insidious.
>
>Watch out for further information on CNN and Sky. Probably there will be a
>statement by Janet Reno. I believe the virus has reached the East Coast, and
>some are saying that the whole of the UK is down. I think maybe this is the Big
>One.
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