OT: SWEN worm

richard said:

Greetings! I've been hit by about 200 or so copies of the SWEN worm since THU 18-SEP. They've all
come in on an account used only in this group.

Am I the only one getting clobbered by this thing? Uh, could y'all kindly check your
systems, please?

I've been hit with at least 500 copies of the worm since Thursday.

I think anyone who's posted anything to usenet is getting hit by it. I know of several people
scattered all over, all using different newsgroups, who are having to deal with it. I get
10-20 an hour. Since I use Agent and the attachments are never opened, it's no big deal.
They're just deleted.

________________________________

-= ®atzofratzo =-

"richard" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Greetings! I've been hit by about 200 or so copies of the SWEN worm since THU 18-SEP. They've all
come in on an account used only in this group.

Am I the only one getting clobbered by this thing? Uh, could y'all kindly check your
systems, please?

Me too. That'll teach us to obfuscate our email addresses before posting to usenet...

Shayne Wissler

"-= ®atzofratzo =-" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

richard said:

Greetings! I've been hit by about 200 or so copies of the SWEN worm

since

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

THU 18-SEP. They've all come in on an account used only in this group.

Am I the only one getting clobbered by this thing? Uh, could y'all

kindly

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

check your systems, please?

I've been hit with at least 500 copies of the worm since Thursday.

I think anyone who's posted anything to usenet is getting hit by it. I know of several people
scattered all over, all using different newsgroups, who are having to deal with it. I get 10-20 an
hour. Since I use Agent and the attachments are never opened, it's no big deal. They're just
deleted.

I just spent the morning getting rid of the Gibe B worm.

--
Robin Hubert <[email hidden]

In article <[email hidden]>, richard

Quoted message said:

Greetings! I've been hit by about 200 or so copies of the SWEN worm since THU 18-SEP. They've all
come in on an account used only in this group.

Am I the only one getting clobbered by this thing?

Nah, I've gotten about 3,000 infected e-mails in the past 48 hours although not all of them are this
particular pest. Fortunately my ISPs virus quarantine system has caught them all, although the worm
doesn't trouble my OS directly. But at least my mailbox hasn't been clogged up with this [censored].

Quoted message said:

Uh, could y'all kindly check your systems, please?

A complete scan from / on up showed no virii or worms in 78,000+ files, so that was nice to know.
Too bad Virex is so damned slow and took 4:50 to run the scan...

Thank you Microsoft for creating so *many* opportunities for creative software writers.

Tim McNamara said:

Thank you Microsoft for creating so *many* opportunities for creative software writers.

If the tables were turned and the predominant OS and computer was made by Apple for the last several
years, you'd be blaming them instead of
MS. The [censored] that write bugs write them to infect the greatest number of computers at one
time, hence Windows attacks.

Blame the [censored] that write the bugs, not the [censored] at Microsoft.

________________________________

-= ®atzofratzo =-

In article <[email hidden]>, richard

Quoted message said:

Greetings! I've been hit by about 200 or so copies of the SWEN worm since THU 18-SEP. They've all
come in on an account used only in this group.

Am I the only one getting clobbered by this thing? Uh, could y'all kindly check your
systems, please?

I don't know what I've been getting, I've not let any of the e-mails from unknown sources into my
system, especially if they have something embedded in the text and an attachment. I'm getting about
2 per hour.

Does that sound like the SWEN worm?

Thanks

Tom Gibb <[email hidden]

In article said:

In article <[email hidden]>, richard

Quoted message said:

Greetings! I've been hit by about 200 or so copies of the SWEN worm since THU 18-SEP. They've all
come in on an account used only in this group.

Am I the only one getting clobbered by this thing? Uh, could y'all kindly check your systems,
please?

I don't know what I've been getting, I've not let any of the e-mails from unknown sources into my
system, especially if they have something embedded in the text and an attachment. I'm getting
about 2 per hour.

Wow, I'm jealous. At peak I was getting about 2 per minute (that includes not just the SWEN worm but
also a couple other executables as well as loads of HTML e-mail with malicious HTML code of some
sort, all of which are far more common that usual since 18 Sept). But then I post a lot in a number
of different newsgroups.

In article Hm_ab.531393$uu5.88518@sccrnsc04 said:

"richard" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Greetings! I've been hit by about 200 or so copies of the SWEN worm since THU 18-SEP. They've
all come in on an account used only in this group.

Am I the only one getting clobbered by this thing? Uh, could y'all kindly check your systems,
please?

Me too. That'll teach us to obfuscate our email addresses before posting to usenet...

Unfortunately, the better harvester programs can strip out things like your obvious NOSPAM stuck in
an e-mail address.

In article <[email hidden]>,

-= ®atzofratzo =- said:

Tim McNamara said:

Thank you Microsoft for creating so *many* opportunities for creative software writers.

If the tables were turned and the predominant OS and computer was made by Apple for the last
several years, you'd be blaming them instead of MS. The [censored] that write bugs write them to
infect the greatest number of computers at one time, hence Windows attacks.

Blame the [censored] that write the bugs, not the [censored] at Microsoft.

Unfortunately it is a team effort between the various [censored]. Microsoft creates the climate in
which the vermin can flourish.

richard said:

Greetings! I've been hit by about 200 or so copies of the SWEN worm since THU 18-SEP. They've all
come in on an account used only in this group.

Am I the only one getting clobbered by this thing? Uh, could y'all kindly check your
systems, please?

Thanks!

I only wish Yahoo would get off their duff and block all of these incoming things from my yahoo
email account.

On Sat, 20 Sep 2003 14:21:31 GMT, -= ®atzofratzo =- <[email hidden]> wrote:

<On Sat, 20 Sep 2003 13:59:23 GMT, richard <[email hidden]> <wrote: < <>Greetings! I've
been hit by about 200 or so copies of the SWEN worm since <>THU 18-SEP. They've all come in on an
account used only in this group. <> <>Am I the only one getting clobbered by this thing? Uh, could
y'all kindly <>check your systems, please? < <I've been hit with at least 500 copies of the worm
since Thursday. < <I think anyone who's posted anything to usenet is getting hit by it.

It's NOT true that a usenet post = swen worm.

<I know of several people scattered all over, all using different <newsgroups, who are having to
deal with it. I get 10-20 an hour. <Since I use Agent and the attachments are never opened, it's no
big <deal. They're just deleted. < < < < <________________________________ < <-= ®atzofratzo =-

On Sat, 20 Sep 2003 19:27:00 GMT, -= ®atzofratzo =- <[email hidden]> wrote:

<On Sat, 20 Sep 2003 11:08:03 -0500, Tim McNamara <<[email hidden]> wrote: < < <>Thank you
Microsoft for creating so *many* opportunities for creative <>software writers. < <If the tables
were turned and the predominant OS and computer was made <by Apple for the last several years, you'd
be blaming them instead of
<MS. The [censored] that write bugs write them to infect the greatest <number of computers at one
time, hence Windows attacks.

No basis for this opinion. Just as likely is that MS paid little heed to security at the outset and
now the retrofit is either cost prohibitive or impossible without a starting from scratch.

<Blame the [censored] that write the bugs, not the [censored] at <Microsoft.

LOL. < <-= ®atzofratzo =-

"-= ®atzofratzo =-" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

Since I use Agent and the attachments are never opened, it's no big deal. They're just deleted.

It is a big deal. I only check my email a couple of times a day, and my isp mailbox has been full
each time (rejecting valid messages) for the last day or so.

Regards,

Suzy

In article said:

richard said:

Greetings! I've been hit by about 200 or so copies of the SWEN worm since THU 18-SEP. They've all
come in on an account used only in this group.

Am I the only one getting clobbered by this thing? Uh, could y'all kindly check your systems,
please?

Thanks!

I only wish Yahoo would get off their duff and block all of these incoming things from my yahoo
email account.

How much do you pay for that account?

That's the snag (for me, anyway)! Need to wait around for all those worms to download, then
acknowledge all the virus detection pop-ups. Oh yeah, then go clean out my quarantine. Then blow
away a real message because it was tucked in between a couple of the worm carriers...

"Suzy Jackson" <[email hidden]> wrote in :"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

"-= ®atzofratzo =-" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

Since I use Agent and the attachments are never opened, it's no big deal. They're just deleted.

It is a big deal. I only check my email a couple of times a day, and my isp mailbox has been full
each time (rejecting valid messages) for the last day or so.

Regards,

Suzy

-= ®atzofratzo =- said:

Tim McNamara said:

Thank you Microsoft for creating so *many* opportunities for creative software writers.

If the tables were turned and the predominant OS and computer was made by Apple for the last
several years, you'd be blaming them instead of
MS. The [censored] that write bugs write them to infect the greatest number of computers at one
time, hence Windows attacks.

Blame the [censored] that write the bugs, not the [censored] at Microsoft.

If that were true then Apache would be the most targetted web server for virus/worm writers. Instead
it is IIS. Apache web servers outnumber IIS by about 2 to 1.

Apache has had bugs, and they have been targetted by worms but the majority of Apache sites run on
one or another flavour of unix. The means that even if a worm does manage to infect a system there
is still only limited actions it can take (assuming a default installation where the apache is
running as a separate user on the system)

Tim.

--
God said, "div D = rho, div B = 0, curl E = - @B/@t, curl H = J + @D/@t," and there was light.

tjw.hn.orgtjw.hn.orgOpen ↗ locofungus.btinternet.co.uklocofungus.btinternet.co.ukOpen ↗

Captain's log. On StarDate Sat, 20 Sep 2003 21:33:05 -0500 received comm from "Tim McNamara
<[email hidden]> on channel rec.bicycles.tech ":

: In article <[email hidden]>,
: -= ®atzofratzo =- <[email hidden]> wrote:
:
: > On Sat, 20 Sep 2003 11:08:03 -0500, Tim McNamara <[email hidden]> wrote:
: >
: > >Thank you Microsoft for creating so *many* opportunities for creative software writers.
: >
: > If the tables were turned and the predominant OS and computer was made by Apple for the last
: > several years, you'd be blaming them instead of MS. The [censored] that write bugs write them to
: > infect the greatest number of computers at one time, hence Windows attacks.
: >
: > Blame the [censored] that write the bugs, not the [censored] at Microsoft.
:
: Unfortunately it is a team effort between the various [censored]. Microsoft creates the climate in
: which the vermin can flourish.

Don't be that foolish Tim. Apple also creates a lot of such opportunities (and even free software
like Linux), but just like with most applications and software in general, also virus and worm
makers has less interest and support for platforms who isn't used by that many people.

So having a well supported platform is for both good and bad, but that said it's very little bad for
me as I haven't had a virus for over 15 years on any of my computers (and neither any worm, or any
other type of such problems).

I don't know what you all "[censored]" are running, but regardless of which system who is most
popular you need to have some good sense in how to use it, and not neglect patching holes and other
good security practices.

Best regards,

martin törnsten

--
194.236.153.211194.236.153.211Open ↗

richard may have said:

That's the snag (for me, anyway)! Need to wait around for all those worms to download, then
acknowledge all the virus detection pop-ups. Oh yeah, then go clean out my quarantine. Then blow
away a real message because it was tucked in between a couple of the worm carriers...

First, change the settings on your virus scanner to "silently quarantine" the virus files, and you
won't have to deal with all th popups.

Second, add a filter in your email client that will spot the line that's changed relating to the
deleted attachment, and use that as an indicator to delete the message itself (or move it to a
different folder).

Then, if you're not on a dialup, leave the email clinet running 24/7, set to grab mail every 60
minutes, and the overflow problem is handled.

I had to do this for my S.O.; she's getting 20 to 30 per hour, and that results in a mailbox
overflow in about 4 hours.

--
My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail. Yes, I have a killfile. If I
don't respond to something, it's also possible that I'm busy.

In article <[email hidden]>, Martin Törnsten

Quoted message said:

Captain's log. On StarDate Sat, 20 Sep 2003 21:33:05 -0500 received comm from "Tim McNamara
<[email hidden]> on channel rec.bicycles.tech ":

: In article <[email hidden]>,
: -= ®atzofratzo =- <[email hidden]> wrote:
:
: > On Sat, 20 Sep 2003 11:08:03 -0500, Tim McNamara <[email hidden]> wrote:
: >
: > >Thank you Microsoft for creating so *many* opportunities for creative software writers.
: >
: > If the tables were turned and the predominant OS and computer was made by Apple for the last
: > several years, you'd be blaming them instead of MS. The [censored] that write bugs write them
: > to infect the greatest number of computers at one time, hence Windows attacks.
: >
: > Blame the [censored] that write the bugs, not the [censored] at Microsoft.
:
: Unfortunately it is a team effort between the various [censored]. Microsoft creates the climate
: in which the vermin can flourish.

Don't be that foolish Tim. Apple also creates a lot of such opportunities (and even free software
like Linux), but just like with most applications and software in general, also virus and worm
makers has less interest and support for platforms who isn't used by that many people.

While there is some truth to what you say, Windows is far more rife with security holes than the Mac
OS (either OS 9 and earlier or OS X) or any flavor of Unix. It's simply easier to write worms,
viruses and Trojan horses for Windows. It's not merely a matter of installued user base, it's also a
matter of ease and accessibility.

Apple has been far better at identifying vulnerabilities and fixing them than has Microsoft. A fix
is usually available within 24 hours of a vulnerability being identified, installable with one click
of the mouse. Like you, in the 17 years I have been using Macs I have never had problems with a
virus infection- the basic OS is quite secure, the virus protection software is effective, and Apple
has proven to be quite vigilant (as befits a company with a small fraction of the market).