Tweets,

More bad news on the computer virus front. ;-(

Dan Victor, Seattle, WA mailto:dcv at scn.org
Tweeters = http://www.scn.org/tweeters/

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2001 08:38:46 -0500
From: Dave Rintoul <drintoul at ksu.edu>
To: BIRDCHAT at listserv.arizona.edu
Subject: [BIRDCHAT] ADMIN: BadTrans worm

Greetings

Thanks to birdchatter Mike Street I have been alerted to a new kind of
computer worm that is able to circumvent the anti-viral measures that we
can implement on the list. It is called BadTrans; and it seems to be
rampant at the moment. Additional information is available at all the
standard anti-viral sites including:

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.badtrans.13312 at mm.html

Briefly, infected Windows computers will send messages containing the worm
in response to ANY unopened messages in the mail list. Hence if you send a
note to BirdChat, and one of the BirdChat members has contracted this
infection, you will get a message that seems to be in response to your
BirdChat message. But it will contain an attachment, with one of several
names:

Pics.ZIP.scr
images.pif
README.TXT.pif
New_Napster_Site.DOC.scr
news_doc.scr
hamster.ZIP.scr
YOU_are_FAT!.TXT.pif
searchURL.scr
SETUP.pif
Card.pif
Me_nude.AVI.pif
Sorry_about_yesterday.DOC.pif
s3msong.MP3.pif
docs.scr
Humor.TXT.pif
fun.pif

As should be obvious, this sort of worm bypasses BirdChat altogether, and
sends infected mail directly to unsuspecting users. BirdChat
administrators cannot protect you from this; you are on your own. But you
should not be "unsuspecting". As always, DON'T OPEN ATTACHMENTS that you
are not expecting! Keep your antiviral files updated! Or get a Mac or UNIX
system :-)

As always, questions and comments regarding this ADMIN message should be
directed to me (mailto:drintoul at ksu.edu) rather than to the list at large.

Birding news: House wrens returned to my neighborhood this morning, and the
chickadee eggs in the cavity in my dead tree have hatched.

Cheers

Dave

Dave Rintoul, co-listowner, BirdChat <mailto:drintoul at ksu.edu>
Biology Division - KSU ICBM: 39.18N, 96.34W
Manhattan KS 66506-4901 VOX: 785-532-6663
http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~drintoul/ FAX: 785-532-6653