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Archiver > OHFAIRFI > 1999-03 > 0922716028
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Subject: [OHFAIRFI-L] "Melissa" Virus Alert
Date: Mon, 29 Mar 1999 09:00:28 EST
Dear Friends and Family,
This morning (March 29, 1999), the TODAY program in its top-of-the-hour news
segment warned viewers not to open mail with the subject heading "Important
message from . . ." for fear of opening up their computers to the virus,
Melisaa, which, besides affecting your computer, can affect the first fifty
people on your e-mail address list. Ann went on to say that this is one virus
that the government and big business are taking very seriously . . .and that
it would spread via e-mail very rapidly in a very short time. The following
comes from a front-page article today (3/29/99) at
htt://www.msnbc.com/news:
Melissa macro Word attachment called list.doc contains
virus/worm that sends copies of itself around Net
By Bob Sullivan
MSNBC
March 28 If you receive an e-mail with the subject line Important message
from ... , be suspicious. If you open the document, it will send 50 copies of
itself to several e-mail addresses it gleans from your personal e-mail. That
gives it the ability to propagate very quickly and possibly wreak havoc with
e-mail systems on Monday despite a weekend of warnings, according to virus
experts.
Were getting so many reports from across the world., that we know this is
going to be a huge problem come Monday,
KATHERINE FITHEN Manager of Carnegie Mellon Universitys Computer Emergency
Response Team IF YOUVE BEEN infected, dont feel bad experts think
hundreds of thousands of PCs might have been infected in the three days the
virus has been in the wild.
Katherine Fithen, manager of Carnegie Mellon Universitys Computer
Emergency Response Team, said the full reach of the virus may become clear
Monday when millions of people sit down at their computer terminals for the
first time since Melissa emerged.
Its safe to say were bracing ourselves, she said.
The document itself contains a list of 73 pornographic Web sites, along
with usernames and passwords for those sites. The virus may have been
unleashed on the world Friday it contains the text Password List for March
26, 1999.
The virus can allow documents to be e-mailed to other people without
warning, a potential security breach that should worry businesses and
governments, an expert at Carnegie Mellon University said Saturday.
Melissa spreads via infected e-mail and attacks computers loaded with
Microsofts widely used Word 97 or Word 2000 programs, according to CERT,
which is a Department of Defense-funded computer security team.
CERT first heard of the virus Friday afternoon and its members worked
through the night to analyze the virus and develop a fix, Fithen said.
Were getting so many reports from across the world., that we know
this is going to be a huge problem come Monday, she said.
Fithen noted that since CERT was founded 10 years ago, this is only the
second time it has considered a virus important enough to warrant a public
announcement. The first, in 1994, warned of a virus that allowed computer
burglars to collect passwords.
SPREADING RAPIDLY
CERT has not determined where the Melissa virus originated.
Fithen said she is not allowed to say whether any governmental agency
has suffered a security breach as a result of Melissa.
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I hope I have not broken any copyright laws by passing the text of this
article on to each of you, but I have documented the source of the article
and, if you pass the article on to your e-mail buddies today, I would advise
you to do the same. In the event that this is just another virus hoax, I
apologize for arousing your concern; however, in case that this is a
legitimate threat, then I think that we have to take this seriously in case
this time "Melissa" is a very real virus. It can't hurt to take precautions,
and if you are in doubt about this story, turn on your news and check out the
website http://www.msnbc.com/news/253803.asp today, March 29, 1999.
Hope that all of you have a great week and that your weather is as beautiful
as ours.
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