Computer experts warn of viruses in Valentine messages...

[NS]

WASHINGTON: Security experts are warning PC users to be on guard against viruses masquerading as Valentine's Day messages, which could damage computers.

"Computer users should keep a wary eye on any romantic messages received by e-mail, as many of them could contain malicious code," said US security firm PandaLabs after detecting an increase in a worm it dubbed Nurech.A.

The worm hides in e-mails with subjects like: "Together You and I," "Till the End of Time Heart of Mine."

People who open an attached file such as postcard.exe can end up infecting their computers.

Security firm Symantec said it had detected "large-scale spamming" of e-mails including a Trojan horse, a program that contains or installs a malicious program.

Symantec said the malware was a new version of Trojan.Peacomm or the "Storm Trojan".

"With Valentine's Day approaching, this time around the authors are attempting to tug on the heartstrings of unsuspecting users with romantic subject lines such as 'My Heart belongs to you'," said Symantec's Orla Cox.

"The Trojan is much the same as we've seen before, the only difference being that the authors have used a modified packer in an (unsuccessful) effort to evade detection by antivirus vendors."

"As a general rule, don't open any suspicious e-mail, regardless of what it says it contains," said Luis Corrons, technical director of PandaLabs.

"Instead of going on instincts, let a security solution decide whether it's safe to open it or not," he said, urging users to scan any suspicious messages with an antivirus program.

Corrons said events like Valentine's Day and Christmas are often exploited by cyber-criminals to try and spread their creations by disguising infected e-mails as e-greeting cards.

This use of "social engineering" was used in the LoveLetter virus, which caused one of the biggest epidemics in computer history. - AFP/so

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/ ... 59/1/.html

[Turbo Audi]

Guess that does not include us Linux users huh?

[pianowizard]

This will definitely not affect me because I hate emails about Valentine's Day, so I will never open one!

[tfflivemb2]

This will definitely not affect me because I hate emails about Valentine's Day, so I will never open one!

ok ok ok...I guess I won't send you a cute Valentine's Day email...hehe

[jdhurst]

I finally turned off my email. You have to contact me separately and asked to be whitelisted to get to me (yes, thinkpads.com is whitelisted). But now I never get the Valentines and other stuff so it no longer bothers me. ... JD Hurst

[Nigellus]

I never get those viruses. I'm not sure if it's because I ignore forwards and spam, or because AVG if that good, or because nobody loves me.

[jason5885]

This forum should only allow people with whitelisted IP to log in or else lots of chaos from idiots!

[Nigellus]

Banning all chaos from idiots sounds good in theory, but the costs of enforcement are staggering. I move that the question be laid on the table.

[NS]

This forum should only allow people with whitelisted IP to log in or else lots of chaos from idiots!

Hey dude, please tone it down a little will you! Why poke the badger with a stick and invite them to bite you?

*Back on topic*:

I can give people my yahoo messenger, email addresses but i always have my spam filter turned on at the highest and never bother to read mails coming from weird usernames and email addresses. I will only read mails from BillMorrow and my lecturers and i will never fail to reply their mails.

And to those people who never seek my permission and anyhow PM me for tutorials on hacking passwords and act as if there is no tomorrow will be blacklisted by me and usernames reported to the admins for further actions taken.

Thank you for reading. Cheerz..

[ronbo613]

Got a "postcard.exe" attachment today, left over from New Years I guess.