Dear Lactnetters-
This is part of a letter that we sent to Jill. I thought it might help some
others on the list as well.
Happy99.exe is a cute little executable program that runs a nice fireworks
display and wishes you a "Happy '99". While you view that cute little
fireworks display, though, it is infecting your system with a worm program.
You appear to be infected.
A hacker's worm is different than a virus; it is usually not overly
destructive to your files and directories. This worm, though, keeps on
going from your system to others, sort of automatically, as an attachment to
a blank letter that generates after you send one to someone else.
For example, when you originally sent "WBW & WABA dolls" to lactnet, nothing
happened, but your system then automatically generated another post off the
address you entered and sent it without your knowledge. You likely didn't
send the virus to everyone on your list or anything like that, because, from
my experience, it appears to generate bogus e-mails at random. But you
might want to get in touch with anyone you may have e-mailed in the last
several days and alert them.
Tell them simply to delete the letter. Tell them DO NOT OPEN the
attachment, because it will infect their systems and they will soon be
spewing forth bogus e-mails, too.
This worm is not fancy; it is fact. It is not some message from someone
somewhere just to get a laugh as we dutifully send a warning to everyone in
our entire address book. It screwed up our county treasurer's computer so
badly, it had to be re-formatted (wiped clean) and completely reloaded from
scratch, a week's work for one technician.
My understanding, though, is that this is rare, because the worm is
treatable. I wish I knew how to go about it, but I never researched it that
far. If I were you, I'd start with www.mcafee.com, which I believe has a
remedy for this pesky thing. You can run a scan online for viruses without
downloading ViruScan, and, if you are happy with that and want to, I have no
compunction about recommending you download ViruScan for a trial. I did,
and on my advice, my mother just purchased the program for us and for
herself because of Happy99.exe and Melissa both, neither of which infected
us.
Anyway, I'm sure I sound like the king of geeks here, but I wanted to try to
give you a good warning without freaking you out too much. Have a good day.
I don't claim to be an expert, but, if I or Lori can help you more on this
situation, please, don't hesitate to e-mail us.
John McCulloch (husband of Lori McCulloch WIC Peer Counselor)
[log in to unmask]
----- Original Message -----
From: Automatic digest processor <[log in to unmask]>
To: Recipients of LACTNET digests <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, April 24, 1999 11:02 PM
Subject: LACTNET Digest - 24 Apr 1999 (#1999-132)
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