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Sunday, May 05, 2002 10:09 PM
Subject: Re: viruses


Tweeters: When I first subscribed I used my business email address, mediate at vcn.com. Later I changed to my home address, birder at vcn.com. The reason this seemingly insignificant news is significant is that I had many tweeters addresses on my office computer email address book. Today my office computer was infected by a devilishly clever and very bad virus, the W32.Klez.H and W32.Klez.gen. This virus takes over the email system and sends messages to everyone on the address book, but pretends to be sending from other addresses, not mine. it also steals files from my computer and sends them to people.

If you have Norton antivirus protection, update it immediately. Or go to Symantec's home page to get updates. There are fraudulent fixes out there, so only trust Symantec. Most internet service providers have filters to protect customers, but some of these filters are better than others.

The W32Klez virus will corrupt files and disrupt use of your other programs, so a high level of caution is warranted. My internet service provider says that the originators of this virus are constantly updating versions, staying ahead of Symantec. I spent all day trying to clean up my computer and warn people about this virus. Be very cautious.

I ran the update on my home computer just before I sent this message. I believe that this computer is clean. I hope that I am right. However, to be cautious, I am sending this only to my spouse's home site first. It passed the local ISP virus screen. If any of you should receive messages from mediate at vcn.com, please let me know by reply to that address.

RT Cox
birder at vcn.com
Gillette, Wy