If you're a YahooMail user and you received a bulk mail from "noreply@yahoo.com" informing you that your Yahoo mailbox has been temporarily disabled due to unauthorized usage, and for further details to open the attachment DON'T OPEN IT!!! It's the Beagle Virus. And it advises you to download a Yahoo product to clean it if you scan it up. (probably to make Yahoo look bad) I mailed back to noreply@yahoo.com and it's a mailer daemon, no such address. So it's not Yahoo.

Here's the attachment message:

>Scan result: Virus "W32.Beagle.J@mm" found.
You can not download this attachment <

I read somewhere that people (using the term advisedly) are now making pages that look just like the real thing; and that if you get one of these "alerts" you should not open it or click on its enclosed link whatever you do--this initiates the virus--but rather type the address of the real Yahoo, MSN or whatever in the box yourself, or use your own link, and then check the validity of your notice.

I got an e-mail with sender "Mailer Daemon" which fooled me the first time, and I got a virus which software took care of. The second time I noticed that the identification of sender was phoney, and just deleted it.

people (using the term advisedly)

Jackie, !

WO'N, yeah, it's infected not only Yahoo. So all y'all non-Mac users (ahem) take heed.

FYI - It's not specific to Yahoo or any mail service. It spoofs administrative authority from whatever address it chooses and sends a similar, personalized "mailbox unavailable" announcement.

Believe it or not, I got suckered. First time. It was because it came from the mini-AIR mailing list which I've been on for ever and which has never given me problems before.

Still, Pest Patrol got rid of it in short order. I tell you, I don't believe in capital punishment, but the cat o' nine tails seems a fairly good substitute for these non-people ...

Have I ever told you my theories about the rung of Purgatory reserved for the sub-human jerks who turn loose virsuses and worms on the net? It ain't pretty.

Something like this, Father Steve?
http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=words&Number=111484
In this thread you mention several types of offenses that merit punishments.

Yah, that pretty well sums it up. Kind of you to remember the demented ramblings of a fevered mind.

(Note the typical misspellings and the one-time use of sic: )


Virus Writers Use Internet Worms for War of Words

Wed Mar 3, 2004 03:56 PM ET
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The creators of the Netsky, MyDoom and Bagle e-mail viruses have taken to exchanging insults in what amounts to a war of words in computer code between rival hackers, anti-virus experts said on Wednesday.

On one side are the creators of MyDoom and Bagle, who are believed to be spammers or spam groups because many variants of the viruses leave backdoors on infected computers that can be used to turn them into spam zombies, said Chris Belthoff, senior security analyst at anti-virus company Sophos Inc.

On the other side is the person or group responsible for the Netsky virus, who do not have any profit motive, he said.

"It almost seems like they are playing a war of one-upmanship," Belthoff said. "They could be jealous over the media attention the others are getting."

Versions of the three computer viruses, all self-propagating e-mail worms, have wreaked havoc on computers across the Internet since early this year.

Updated anti-virus software can detect and block the viruses.

The latest version of Netsky, dubbed Netsky.F, has a message in the code that says "Bagle - you are a looser!!!! (sic)" and an earlier version says: "MyDoom.F is a thief of our idea!"

Code in Mydoom.F and Bagle.I and Bagle.J addresses Netsky's creator directly, using expletives. One message tells Netsky: "don't ruine our bussiness, wanna start a war?"

Bagle.K, the latest version of Bagle, masquerades as an e-mail from a company's information technology department, Belthoff said.

The most recent variant of MyDoom, MyDoom.G, opens up a backdoor and directs infected computers to launch an attack on the Web site of anti-virus company Symantec Corp. (SYMC.O: Quote, Profile, Research) , he said.

Netsky.F, the newest version of that virus, tries to deactivate earlier MyDoom and Bagle variants, he added.

Five of the latest versions of the viruses were released within three hours on Wednesday morning, according to Russian-based anti-virus vendor Kaspersky Labs.

"It's hard to imagine a more comical situation: a handful of virus writers are playing unpunished with the Internet, and not one member of the Internet community can take decisive action to stop to this lawlessness," Eugene Kaspersky, head of anti-virus research at the company, wrote in a release.

(Additional reporting by Alberto Alerigi in Sao Paulo.)

------------------------------------------------------------------------
© Copyright Reuters 2004. All rights reserved.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=4491208§ion=news

Sheesh. "Loosers" indeed; and yes, I am scared of associating myself in any way with them!

if these guys could find the time, they could prolly make a lot of $$ generating anti-virus software... hmmm.

It's a common enough conspiratorial theory that the anti-viral software folks and the virus writers are one and the same. Don't think so.

You know, from what I've heard, jheem's right. There was a piece on NPR the other day (I know I quote it a lot, but NPR's my main source of news) by a guy who spent time with some [scare quotes] script kiddies [/scare quotes] in rural Austria, of all places. Bored teenagers. Also, notice that a correspondent in Brazil added to the piece. Probably more bored teenagers there.

Sheesh. "Loosers" indeed...

You know, Jackie, I'm just now thinking: these kids may indeed be non-native speakers. Which is pretty scary, because they're learning their English from American teenagers on the net rather than through the (harrumph®) appropriate channels. [/prescriptivist]

'Loosers' is a common internet misspelling, to the point that it is used intentionally is some circles, much as we might use, e.g., 'aksherally.'

actually®, you won't have caught me using 'aksherally.'
-joe e. (what me, a prescriptivist?!) newman

Or either 'attually®', one.

loosers

Hey, did musick write that piece?

(and can he claim the coinage for that one right here on AWAD?)

Yeah, but...loosers is too close to the usual spelling to give the same effect of cavalier loucheness as 'attually®' or 'aksherally'.

This morning I got a fairly clever message purporting to be
from my ISP that my e-mail was going to be shut down for three days "for misuse". I was immediately suspicious because it was in "Bulk Mail" = Spam, and some of the
English was unprofessional.
And the attachement was a gif. So I deleted it immediately.

Somehow, I knew that would get a rise out of juan.

Dr Bill, I just got an E-mail from my ISP warning us about spam/viruses/worms, and reminding us how we can be sure if the message is legit or not. Good on you for setting up a Bulk Mail folder, and for immediately deleting.

Dear AS: When Yahoo took over PacBell, they changed the e-mail, so that I get mail in Bulk, and in an Inbox. Not my doing. In a way it is a joke, as they are not separated in
any useful way. I get private messages in both places. Only thing good about it is after running down the list of BULK items, I can with one stroke check them all to be deleted by one more stroke. But I knew Yahoo would not put one of their messages in the BULK group.

I'll have some creame cheese and raspberrye jame on my Bagle, if you please. Oh, and toaste it until it crunches.

Hmmm...so am I talking to myslef again?

It's when your slef starts talking back that you have to start worrying. Them slefs can get mighty uppity if you let them talk to you.

My slef is a picture of humility, thank you!

He slefs around in his modest demeanor all the time...sleffing, sleffing, sleffing away...and for what?

"Nice guys finish last."
--Leo Durocher

But a true slef does what he does bcause he knows it's the *right* thing to do. Thank you.

It's okay if you talk to yourslef as long as you don't answer yourslef in different voices.

There was a wise man who talked to himself because he preferred an intelligen audience.