The ZaCker virus is doing the rounds at my company. Do not run Christmas.exe because this is really evil. It deletes programs renames the machine to ZaCker and sends itself to your entire address book. After a re-boot we are unable to log on.

http://vil.nai.com/vil/virusSummary.asp?virus_k=99285 if you need more information.

If you avoid opening the dodgy attachments, you should be safe ;)

Users are STUPID. The words "Do not open attachments unless you know what they are" seems to mean click on every cute Icon that people send you.

There's a variant out as well. Not many reports as yet.

http://vil.nai.com/vil/virusSummary.asp?virus_k=99288

Jack Clark
McAfee

Question all unexpected attachments. It only takes a minute to reply to an email.

Jack, Are you saying it is safe to open and reply to an e-mail (to question its authenticity) that you think may have a dodgy attachment? In other words the main body text of the e-mail cannot do any harm? Sorry I’m a bit ludite on these things but I did see another thread which recommended turning off the preview pane in Outlook Express which I have done but why was this suggested if messages themselves are OK. I think I have missed something here! BTW I do run Norton and regularly update. Any advice appreciated. David

Jack will probably answer this correctly, but yes, in some versions of Outlook Express, previewing is enough to actually get the virus to install (through an IFRAME loophole) without ever touching an attachment or anything.

There are security patches however for this on the Microsoft website.

Just ensure that your copy of Outlook is fully patched, in fact patch everything you can from www.microsoft.com/windowsupdate , update your antivirus regularly, don't take candy from strangers and brush your teeth regularly.

I had an email that I opened that took me to a webpage and then tried to download a virus. All this got through our company firewalls and virus checkers on the Outlook servers, but was picked up by my virus checker.

I didn't download anything.

greg

You open an attatchment that was sent from anybody without knowing its content, then you deserve what you get.

Cem

i reckon we should spread the word to open any executable attachments using Notepad or another text editor. Or just delete every one you ever receive.

After all, how many of us have address book contacts that ever email us program files, screen savers etc. as attachments??

(edited for cack spelling) :D

[Edited by eyeMAJIC - 1/2/2002 11:58:07 AM]