Message no. 1

From:	Pete p.siems@******.net
Subject:	Virus Warning
Date:	Sat, 13 May 2000 18:02:12 +0100

In relation to Dvixens post on this subject there are to date 28 variations
on the I Love You Virus and a pile more due to arrive. At this time the only
AV company that are on top of it for all variations is Nortons Anti Virus,
updates to software are available on their ftp site if you can't get a
download from the web page (addresses below) Symantec also have a single
download executable that will clean your system of this nuisance.Several
other viruses are also dealt with through executable files.

ftp://symantec.com/public/
There are a bunch of language variations and software types available on
this site which should allow you to find one that speaks your language.
There are also a whole new bunch of virus hoaxes, it might be worthwhile
checking those out at http://www.symantec.com
One of the problems that has arisen with the latest crop of e.mail viruses
is that while they are executable and use a .vbs extension they are
cunningly named to fool windows. The last one was Iloveyou.txt.vbs Notice
the double seperator. Windows will read the .txt extension and assume that
is the one it should use for file association. It is the .vbs extension
that is hidden. This is not a fault in windows, but a simple fault in file
extensions. Most windows installations are at default settings and explorer
must be set to "show all files" to reveal the full extension. However, this
may bypass some Windows98/95 systems anyway. As far as I know, only NT
shows full file extensions when told to.

The only easy way out of all of this is quite simply to delete anything you
do not recognise that has a file attachment. Advice to people not to open
attachments doesn't seem to work. So delete it, or mail/phone the person
who sent it to you and check that they did actually send you something.

Viruses can only affect your system if you let them. With caution and common
sense you should be perfectly safe. I have never caught a virus and I know
many others who haven't. Simply because we are careful.

--
Avenger