Is this a virus?

[Plato]

I am inquiring for a friend (who has no anti-virus protection). She
says she has been receiving 100's of returned e-mails everyday, but hasn't
sent any out. They seem to be to random addresses, domestic and
international, etc. Could this be a virus?

Chances are, yes, it's a trojan and chances are yes, she is sending them
out unknowingly. ie many modern trojans have their own SMTP program
[email program] included with the trojan [virus]. Some of these types of
bugs send to people in your address book, whist others just generate
random addresses. If you have a broadband connection you wont even
notice the trojan sending out the emails.

 

[DILIP]

Gosh, I can't understand why someone doesn't use one...
If you have a little common sense and don't go clicking on every "innocent"
attachment that comes along, virii are easily avoided; provided you run a
firewall. I have never used AVs due to their burden on system resources.

 

[strad]

If you have a little common sense and don't go clicking on every
"innocent" attachment that comes along, virii are easily avoided;
provided you run a firewall. I have never used AVs due to their
burden on system resources.

You must have extremely limited sytem resources. Ridiculous advice, not to
use an anti-virus program. By the way, the pretentious "word" virii is not
a word in any language, present or past.

 

[RJK]

You slightly misunderstand me - my fault for not being literal enough. I
should have said, "...I'd hurl the *description* of a virus at you..." I
completely agree with your comments on correct or optimal software
configuration. i.e. most ordinary PC users don't do it, mostly because they
don't know how to do it, and partly because they haven't got the time to
research, read up and learn how to do it. So they mostly rely on third
party software for internet security. I think they even mistakenly trust
that such software will protect them from all the [Y]'s they prod, when
queried by, for example, firewall software prompts regarding ActiveX
controls and Java Applets etc.

Perhaps this is why there appears to be a preponderance of advice, issued by
the *experts* 'out there,' to implement a 'multi-layered' approach to
internet security.

Even then, one has to occasionally trundle along and sort out a machine that
has had the [Y] key pressed LOTS of times, in response to prompts from a
firewall software, for example, when [N] should have been prodded lots of
times.

Then there are those machines that have had the firewall switched off
because the PC user was tearing his hair out 'cause a particular site
refused to load in his browser window... I'm sure that one day I'm going to
say something like, "You switched off your firewall, (or "You switched off
your a/v software and stupidly ran that email attachment",) , "...sort it
out yourself !!"

regards, Richard



It won't do nothing if you send it to me, I have OE in the restricted zone.
Understand. If one's computer is correctly configured then one is almost
immune. Be aware that no virus gets on my computer (except by my choice when
I'm working out what you should do to disinfect you). Therefore an AV
program has nothing to do.

People that get infected usually use AV software, that means they reley on
the AV software rather than correct configuration A new virus comes along,
the AV companies haven't seen it yet, they get infected

Tell me, if you are a standalone computer, do you have NetBIOS enabled over
the TCP/IP connection. I don't. Yet most seem to. That is a major flaw.

 

[David Candy]

Well I make my mum, sisters, and soon father run AV program. I make commercial computers run AV software. I know not everyone cares to learn this. But if we are talking to those interested then they need to unlearn myths and learn configuration.

Though my mum may (just may) be able to run without an AV program as she's learnt a lot about safety. Her AV pops up a message and she knows that one does not rely on an AV program so stops opening strange attachments, she knows to ignore MS emails. She doen't like her son removing porn diallers from her computer so no longer visits those sites (how roles change).

But people turn off their bullshit detectors when they're on computers. If I came up to you on the street and told you "I'm a nigerian person who brother was the dictator before a coup ..." you'd tell me to piss off.

--
----------------------------------------------------------
http://www.g2mil.com/Dec2003.htm

You slightly misunderstand me - my fault for not being literal enough. I
should have said, "...I'd hurl the *description* of a virus at you..." I
completely agree with your comments on correct or optimal software
configuration. i.e. most ordinary PC users don't do it, mostly because they
don't know how to do it, and partly because they haven't got the time to
research, read up and learn how to do it. So they mostly rely on third
party software for internet security. I think they even mistakenly trust
that such software will protect them from all the [Y]'s they prod, when
queried by, for example, firewall software prompts regarding ActiveX
controls and Java Applets etc.

Perhaps this is why there appears to be a preponderance of advice, issued by
the *experts* 'out there,' to implement a 'multi-layered' approach to
internet security.

Even then, one has to occasionally trundle along and sort out a machine that
has had the [Y] key pressed LOTS of times, in response to prompts from a
firewall software, for example, when [N] should have been prodded lots of
times.

Then there are those machines that have had the firewall switched off
because the PC user was tearing his hair out 'cause a particular site
refused to load in his browser window... I'm sure that one day I'm going to
say something like, "You switched off your firewall, (or "You switched off
your a/v software and stupidly ran that email attachment",) , "...sort it
out yourself !!"

regards, Richard



It won't do nothing if you send it to me, I have OE in the restricted zone.
Understand. If one's computer is correctly configured then one is almost
immune. Be aware that no virus gets on my computer (except by my choice when
I'm working out what you should do to disinfect you). Therefore an AV
program has nothing to do.

People that get infected usually use AV software, that means they reley on
the AV software rather than correct configuration A new virus comes along,
the AV companies haven't seen it yet, they get infected

Tell me, if you are a standalone computer, do you have NetBIOS enabled over
the TCP/IP connection. I don't. Yet most seem to. That is a major flaw.

 

[Bastet]

It won't do nothing if you send it to me...

Ha! That's a double negative (as well as being appallingly bad grammar!) And
we all know what two negatives make, don't we folks? ;o)

 

[David Candy]

The problem isn't resources but latency. That is everything has to wait for whatever it is to be checked.

If you can't outwit a virus that's fine. I can't do brain surgery or skin grafts. I use a surgeon software loaded on a doctor for these tasks. I disinfect other's computers by hand (thrill of the hunt).

 

[David Candy]

Perhaps that's my dialect (nothin). I also speak RP (noth-ing). And I also speak westie (nuffin).
Perhaps I should get some eritians to visit you and explain language. They won the propaganda war. You didn't.

 

[RJK]

I've found that having Norton a/v running all the time doesn't seem to
affect responses / program / file load times etc. at all. And mine is an
"old" Athlon 1.4ghz 512mb ddr pc2100 on an "old" Asus A7A266 mobo. I always
disable Norton a/v when installing software and updating Windows to avoid
that ocaasional condition where software installation doesn't like having
Norton stuck in the middle. If working offline, I occasionally disable a/v
but, a performance gain is simply not there, or if it is, it's so small as
to be not noticable. So I often do not bother to disable a/v when working
offline.

Considering that my "old" machine is still lovely and swift, even with
Norton a/v sat there intercepting hd reads and writes, I suppose that newer
cpu's, being even swifter, must actually finish doing what you want it to do
before you even tell it to do it !

regards, Richard


The problem isn't resources but latency. That is everything has to wait for
whatever it is to be checked.

If you can't outwit a virus that's fine. I can't do brain surgery or skin
grafts. I use a surgeon software loaded on a doctor for these tasks. I
disinfect other's computers by hand (thrill of the hunt).

 

[RJK]

Now look yer, u doh-no wot yoom on about do'ee? Somerset dialect - that's
me ! decoded:-

Now look here, you don't know what your'e on about do you?

regards, Richard


Perhaps that's my dialect (nothin). I also speak RP (noth-ing). And I also
speak westie (nuffin).
Perhaps I should get some eritians to visit you and explain language. They
won the propaganda war. You didn't.

 

[Bastet]

Perhaps that's my dialect (nothin). I also speak RP (noth-ing). And I
also speak westie (nuffin).
Perhaps I should get some eritians to visit you and explain language.
They won the propaganda war. You didn't.

Sorry, Dave, forgot you're an Aussie... <eg>

 

[DILIP]

So basically - It's the resources of the CPU that are used every time-
That's what I meant. The thrill is right - I have loaded some on to my own
system too (I have just one at home) when I'm backed up. The newer ones
that block msconfig and regedit make the chase more enticing. If you're
always protected, there's no real battle left - and nothing more to learn.
Until u break Windows, you don't really get the whole experience.

--
Dilip

The problem isn't resources but latency. That is everything has to wait for
whatever it is to be checked.

If you can't outwit a virus that's fine. I can't do brain surgery or skin
grafts. I use a surgeon software loaded on a doctor for these tasks. I
disinfect other's computers by hand (thrill of the hunt).

 

[DILIP]

You must have extremely limited sytem resources.

I try to get the most of the computer-I'm a geek. It's something only
experienced users can try.. the others will get viruses anyway. And btw, if
there's a difference on a computer with fewer resources (not that mine's
bad) , there will be a difference on faster ones too.

Ridiculous advice, not to

use an anti-virus program.

When did I say that my post was "advice." In fact I drop in here just to
give my point of view-and the greatest part is that it really makes no
difference what you say or think. Go back to the land of conformists-this
newsgroup has lots anyway.

By the way, the pretentious "word" virii is not

a word in any language, present or past.

It just sounded right.

 

[flan]

:

By the way, the pretentious "word" virii is not
a word in any language, present or past.

It just sounded right.

Kind of like preventing viruses by not using an anti-virus program. Sounds
right to you, but completely wrong.

 

[DILIP]

It works perfectly for me, so I guess I'm just smarter than you are. I go
to all kinds of sites and manage with a free firewall. Yup, must be the
deficit in brain cells. Take it personally.