JEFF WHITE
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E-Mail Virus - Bugbear Virus Shows Big Teeth
Do you have a friend that has recently complained about his or her printer suddenly printing out reams of gibberish? If so, there's a very good chance that your friend's computer has been infected by the recently discovered Bugbear Virus.
The Bugbear Virus continues to be one of the fastest spreading e-mail worms currently making its way across the Internet. The mass mailing computer virus is spread by unsuspecting e-mail recipients who open e-mail attachments they believe to be from their friends. The worm then goes to the recipient's inbox of Outlook or Outlook Express, grabs a file located on the recipient's computer (possibly a confidential one) and randomly e-mails this file along with a copy of the worm (so it actually sends two attachments with each e-mail) to people listed in the recipient's inbox. The worm also disguises the actual source of the e-mail by randomly selecting e-mail addresses from the inbox to be shown as the "sender" of the e-mail. So if a person receives this e-mail worm from a friend or relative, chances are the person it shows being sent from is probably not the person who actually sent it. Additionally, the worm can a) choose randomly from a list of preselected text to insert into the subject line of the message before it is sent, b) create a new message as a reply e-mail, or c) forward an existing e-mail message from the infected computer. All of this makes it pretty difficult for an e-mail recipient to identify an infected e-mail message prior to opening its attachment.
Bugbear also has a backdoor feature which allows the hacker to take control of the computer -- allowing the attacker to remotely perform tasks on the infected computer including the deletion of files, the copying of files and the termination of processes. In addition, the worm attempts to disable processes of firewall and anti-virus software programs.
The Bugbear Worm only infects Windows based operating systems that utilize Outlook or Outlook Express e-mail software. (The worm only infects PCs via an old flaw in unpatched versions of Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express.) Macintosh, Unix and Linux operating systems as well as users of Netscape are not affected by this worm.
Note: Although Bugbear may also cause printers to spit out reams of printed code, the printers themselves are not actually infected.
Remember NOT to open an attachment, even from friends and relatives, unless you've first verified that they sent it to you. We also encourage our Internet customers to utilize anti-virus scanning software and to download updates frequently to lessen the possibility of computers being infected by e-mail viruses. As always, simply using caution and some common sense when opening e-mail attachments can be the best recourse in preventing the spread of e-mail worms and viruses.
weird ?
Do you have a friend that has recently complained about his or her printer suddenly printing out reams of gibberish? If so, there's a very good chance that your friend's computer has been infected by the recently discovered Bugbear Virus.
The Bugbear Virus continues to be one of the fastest spreading e-mail worms currently making its way across the Internet. The mass mailing computer virus is spread by unsuspecting e-mail recipients who open e-mail attachments they believe to be from their friends. The worm then goes to the recipient's inbox of Outlook or Outlook Express, grabs a file located on the recipient's computer (possibly a confidential one) and randomly e-mails this file along with a copy of the worm (so it actually sends two attachments with each e-mail) to people listed in the recipient's inbox. The worm also disguises the actual source of the e-mail by randomly selecting e-mail addresses from the inbox to be shown as the "sender" of the e-mail. So if a person receives this e-mail worm from a friend or relative, chances are the person it shows being sent from is probably not the person who actually sent it. Additionally, the worm can a) choose randomly from a list of preselected text to insert into the subject line of the message before it is sent, b) create a new message as a reply e-mail, or c) forward an existing e-mail message from the infected computer. All of this makes it pretty difficult for an e-mail recipient to identify an infected e-mail message prior to opening its attachment.
Bugbear also has a backdoor feature which allows the hacker to take control of the computer -- allowing the attacker to remotely perform tasks on the infected computer including the deletion of files, the copying of files and the termination of processes. In addition, the worm attempts to disable processes of firewall and anti-virus software programs.
The Bugbear Worm only infects Windows based operating systems that utilize Outlook or Outlook Express e-mail software. (The worm only infects PCs via an old flaw in unpatched versions of Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express.) Macintosh, Unix and Linux operating systems as well as users of Netscape are not affected by this worm.
Note: Although Bugbear may also cause printers to spit out reams of printed code, the printers themselves are not actually infected.
Remember NOT to open an attachment, even from friends and relatives, unless you've first verified that they sent it to you. We also encourage our Internet customers to utilize anti-virus scanning software and to download updates frequently to lessen the possibility of computers being infected by e-mail viruses. As always, simply using caution and some common sense when opening e-mail attachments can be the best recourse in preventing the spread of e-mail worms and viruses.
weird ?
That gibberish was actually the virus sending itself to all available printers, since it doesn't distinguish between computers and printers.. The printers didn't know what to do with the information they were recieving, so they did the only thing they know how....the printed it! LOL!
