'Sober' - new Windows virus - hits computers

From BBC News:

Anti-virus firms are warning about a Windows worm called Sober that is starting to spread widely online. The virus debuted at the weekend and is multiplying because so many versions of Windows are vulnerable it. Many people are thought to be falling victim to it because one version poses as an update from anti-virus firms. It also tries to hide by using many different subject lines in both German and English and by changing the name of the payload holding the virus.

Other subject lines used by Sober try to trick people into opening the message by looking like a warning that they are sending out e-mail messages infected with a virus. Sober also re-uses subject lines seen in older viruses but again tries to fool users by adding comments that make messages bearing them look benign. The payload that an infected message bears also changes its name regularly to disguise the fact that it hides a virus.

SAMPLE SUBJECT LINES:
New internet virus!
You send spam mails (Worm?)
Sorry, Ive become your mail
Viurs blocked every PC (Take care!)
New Sobig-Worm variation (please read)
A worm is on your computer!
Surprise
Back At The Funny Farm
I love you (Im not a virus!)
Sober travels with its own e-mail engine so it can send itself to any addresses it harvests from computers it has managed to infect.

The virus is spreading most widely in Germany but is starting to turn up in the UK too. Mail filtering firm Message Labs said it had stopped 3,400 copies of Sober since the weekend. Windows 2000, 95, 98, Me, NT, Server 2003, and XP are all vulnerable to infection by the Sober virus. Like many other e-mail viruses Sober must be opened and its attachment clicked on to infect a computer. Once installed the virus displays a false error message that might make people think they have avoided infection. Hidden inside the body of the virus is text that praises the creator of the Sobig worm that in August became the fastest spreading worm ever. Security firms urge people to keep their anti-virus software up to date and be wary of unsolicited or unexpected e-mail messages.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3220887.stm

There ARE alternatives, folks.

Atlant

in not starting another Mac vs. Windows thread, Atlant. It IS very tempting, with the awesome G5s, vastly superior OS X operating system, unbelievably stability and... and...

Why are people not buying them like windws?

The herd went for PCs so they must too.

And once they're committed, then they can't admit that
they made the wrong decision, so they defend (and even
repeat!) their original failed decision.

Atlant

Well, that's what made the difference for me. I bought a cheap, basic desktop recently (I don't game, do graphics, etc - just write papers, email, and surf the web). Although I would've preferred a Mac I just couldn't justify the price.

And I'll tell you, I REALLY would've preferred the Mac two nights ago around 1 am when my hard drive totally died for no apparent reason. I hadn't gotten any weird emails or downloaded anything questionable, so I'm not sure if it was a virus or what, but the thing is dead. Less than a month old, too.

Was it still too expensive when your PC's hard drive failed?

Atlant

I got my desktop, a flat screen, a CD drive and a DVD/CD-RW drive for about $750 from dell, AND, the computer is probably more powerful/has more memory than what I really need.

Since it's still so new, of course, Dell will be replacing my drive for free, sending a technician to my house to do it for me. And, of course, since it IS still new, I didn't lose much because I hadn't yet stored up much or transferred everything over from my old lap top. The loss that hurt most was my music, but I figure I've learned my lesson early and will be better about backing up in the future. (I will not be paying for those songs again, though - I will find them for free elsewhere.)

My laptop, by the way, is from 1998 and has always worked fine.

I'm not disagreeing with you - I do think Macs are usually better, but they're just not as practical or necessary for ALL computer users.

I don't drive the best car out there or wear the highest quality clothes, either. I buy what I need for the best price I can find.

Just a tiny bitchfest about iTunes, which I had downloaded. I had purchased about $20 worth of songs, all gone now. I understand it's my own fault for not backing them up, etc., but I don't understand the logic behind not letting me download those songs again. I have receipts, after all, and it's not like these are CDs where they have a set amount and need to profit off each one.

Again, I know it's my own fault for not backing up, I just don't understand THE REASON for the policy.

...you have to buy a new computer, unlike other alternatives like LINUX!

> Thank you for your restraint...

Well, I simply recognize that someday, there *MAY* be a virus
that infects MacOS/X. Someday. Maybe.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/23/technology/circuits/23stat.html

Macintosh fans, on the other hand, have watched the tribulations of the
much larger Windows population with mixed feelings - sympathy, relief,
even amusement - because their operating system, Mac OS X, is so far 100
percent virus-free. And because Mac OS X comes with less of its plumbing
exposed to the Internet than Windows, hackers are a far more distant
worry.

Atlant

Steve Jobs

I can dual-boot into Windows or run it in a virtual machine when I need to run
something that I can't run on OSX or Linux.

If you at least avoid reading mail on Windows you avoid most of the viruses.
If you must read mail on Windows, at least avoid using any variant of Outlook.

will give me a demonstration of Macs that live up to the hype. I work with both, and the Macs crash almost as often as my PCs. And, when these suckers crash, they are serious about it! I have also seen their hard drives fail (at crucial times) and don't find them to be one bit (or byte) intuitive, with all due respect to Mac lovers everywhere.

Maybe I just have a PC-wired brain.

And no - I don't own stock in Microsoft.

I programmed for years in assembly language on both platforms. Back then Mac was far and away the better GUI. Though Windows has come a long way IMO they need to shake DOS once and for all and Ctrl-Alt-Delete their software development--clean up a lot of the DOS baggage which still haunts the OS. Mac successfully did that with OS X but it will be much more difficult for Microsoft because of the size of their client base.

I would expect that the hard drives would fail as often as those in PC's since they are made by 3rd party manufacturers (Hitachi/IBM, Maxtor, Western Digital, etc). And if your Mac is crashing a lot then there is something wrong. You should do some disk maintanance, repair permissions, or run some disk repair software.

i go for days on end with out even a reboot with 20 apps open...

check out this demo with multible apps running in multible windows and check out the performance ;->

http://mahajir.ambrosia.net/spx2_panther_expose.mov

peace

Which one?

Dual 1GHz

:hi:

peace

in three weeks, multiple apps, you name it.

One happy camper :-)

apple made a very smart move embracing bsd/opensource

:hi:

peace

and Lord help you when a Mac gets a corrupted extension, particularly with printers...

You are in for a world of hurt and usually will have to call in a freelance tech, who are in such short supply in the world of Mac that they can charge whatever they want...because what else are you going to do about your problem??

Corrupted extension?

Assuming that that ever happens (and I'm not sure I've EVER
seen that happen on an already-running extension), don't you do
what every Windows user does? ...Re-install that extension?
(The difference on a Mac, of course, is that you can find the
extension; it's in the "Extensions" folder in the "System"
folder.)

And you did learn how to use Extension Manager, right? And learned
how to boot with extensions disabled?

Of course, most of that is more-or-less passe now that MacOS/X
is here.

Atlant

if you are ready to go through the process of elimination to determine the corrupted extension. At work (I'm an art director) my comp is hooked to three different printers, large format encad, lexmark and laserjet. The problems that arise from these, although relatively rare, when they happen they are holy hell to deal with.

Running Acrobat with more than two other programs open is an invitation for a freeze-up.

These could be just be something my department has to deal with, but I'm always happy to be working on a PC when I go home.

or drag it out of the folder and drop it in the trash then down load a new one.

it is much easier to install than windows which wrotes to your register and NO drag and drop...

though in OS X there are no extensions ;->

check out http://XvsXP.com for a detailed comparison between the two.

peace

Toss it and reboot...

Also OFTEN overlooked is bad RAM. G4s come with RAM diagnostics--use them! I dealt with crashes for 2 months before I located the bad RAM. Now I only use Kingston.

If the person who created the virus could actually put together a somewhat sentient subject line and accompanying paragraph(s) in the email, it would be unstoppable.

And furthermore, whenever I see something in the subject line that states "Dwonload Windwos Udpate: Sobig am teh suk" and some phony story about how they're from microsoft and they want you to run the attached .bat file, I think of all the poor idjits out there who fell for it.

http://XvsXP.com


also see...

check out this demo with multible apps running in multible windows and check out the performance ;->

http://mahajir.ambrosia.net/spx2_panther_expose.mov

:hi:

peace

The test-parcours includes many (nonintegral) fields where the Mac simply is superior (video Application, layout) and ignores fields where the PC has superiority (Games... :shrug:). Then I wasn't able to figure out when it's okay for the reviewers to use 3rd party software, and when not (I mean: the say Safari is better than IE (sidenote: then why does safari crash every time I use it?), ignoring that Safari is basically Mozilla) .

The nextthing is: why is each subscore equally important? The author acknowledges that some weighting would be in order.

Other than that: interesting piece of text. Interesting to read.

besides you can bring it up with him here...
http://bbs.xvsxp.com/forums/

he is very open to bothsides and readily admits that he doesn't know everything.

glad you liked it :hi:

peace