On Wed, 25 Feb 2004 17:29:28 GMT, Gary S. Idontwantspam@net wrote:

On Wed, 25 Feb 2004 17:01:23 +0000 (UTC), (Mike
Andrews) wrote:

In (rec.radio.amateur.boatanchors), Cecil Moore wrote:
wrote:
dbjjvlhdbrpobcmbngkgdtxpoevsvbqgrocymgcgfswjqeknbn zxqlezzbvbydrbkwvttesckwdnmwtcs

Just curious, does this string of letters have any meaning?

I suspect it's just a pseudorandomly-generated "hashbuster" to help
the spam avoid filters that hash the message body and check against
known spam.

Exactly. As spamfiltering has gotten better, the spammers have gotten
more sophisticated.

The key clue is the attachment. Besides EXE files, ANY files with the
extensions COM, BAT, SCR, and PIF could also be damaging programs.
Note that sometimes a file will have a name ending in more than one
extension, but only the last one matters. More trickery.

This has been hitting the newsgroups in one form or another for some
time, usually carrying a virus or link to a malicious site.

I always wondered is any one ever fell for them.


Do not open any attachments that you have the slightest suspicion of,
no matter who appears to have sent them. A friend could have a virus
on their machine, sending out copies to everyone in their address
book.

Get a good antivirus program, including Norton Antivirus or MacAfee,
which gets frequent updates of virus definitions, and run it on EVERY
file received, via email, Internet, or disk.

Even then, if it's an executable, the sender is some one you don't
know and if you do know them they don't verify they sent it on
purpose...Don't open it.

If your curiosity can't stand it... save the file, then run a scan on
it, but that still doesn't guarantee it won't take you to a malicious
site.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com


The time and money you should put into prevention are a tiny fraction
of what could be involved in recovering from a virus on your machine.

Happy trails,
Gary (net.yogi.bear)
------------------------------------------------
at the 51st percentile of ursine intelligence

Gary D. Schwartz, Needham, MA, USA
Please reply to: garyDOTschwartzATpoboxDOTcom

In message , Roger Halstead
writes
I always wondered is any one ever fell for them.


They do, a perfectly sane and reasonable colleague of mine was very
pleased that Microsoft had taken the time to email him at work about
their new security patch. He opened it.
--
Bill

In message , Roger Halstead
writes
I always wondered is any one ever fell for them.


They do, a perfectly sane and reasonable colleague of mine was very
pleased that Microsoft had taken the time to email him at work about
their new security patch. He opened it.
--
Bill

Bill wrote on 29/02/2004 15:13:

In message , Roger Halstead
writes

I always wondered is any one ever fell for them.

They do, a perfectly sane and reasonable colleague of mine was very
pleased that Microsoft had taken the time to email him at work about
their new security patch. He opened it.

That is arguably neither sane nor reasonable.

--
Roger Barker, G4IDE -
For UI-View go to - http://www.UI-View.com
For WinPack go to - http://www.peaksys.co.uk

Bill wrote on 29/02/2004 15:13:

In message , Roger Halstead
writes

I always wondered is any one ever fell for them.

They do, a perfectly sane and reasonable colleague of mine was very
pleased that Microsoft had taken the time to email him at work about
their new security patch. He opened it.

That is arguably neither sane nor reasonable.

--
Roger Barker, G4IDE -
For UI-View go to - http://www.UI-View.com
For WinPack go to - http://www.peaksys.co.uk

On Sun, 29 Feb 2004 15:13:24 +0000, Bill
wrote:

In message , Roger Halstead
writes
I always wondered is any one ever fell for them.

They do, a perfectly sane and reasonable colleague of mine was very
pleased that Microsoft had taken the time to email him at work about
their new security patch. He opened it.

The term for this is "social engineering", a fancy name for conning
someone.

Happy trails,
Gary (net.yogi.bear)
------------------------------------------------
at the 51st percentile of ursine intelligence

Gary D. Schwartz, Needham, MA, USA
Please reply to: garyDOTschwartzATpoboxDOTcom

On Sun, 29 Feb 2004 15:13:24 +0000, Bill
wrote:

In message , Roger Halstead
writes
I always wondered is any one ever fell for them.

They do, a perfectly sane and reasonable colleague of mine was very
pleased that Microsoft had taken the time to email him at work about
their new security patch. He opened it.

The term for this is "social engineering", a fancy name for conning
someone.

Happy trails,
Gary (net.yogi.bear)
------------------------------------------------
at the 51st percentile of ursine intelligence

Gary D. Schwartz, Needham, MA, USA
Please reply to: garyDOTschwartzATpoboxDOTcom

Roger wrote:
Bill wrote on 29/02/2004 15:13:


In message , Roger Halstead
writes


I always wondered is any one ever fell for them.

They do, a perfectly sane and reasonable colleague of mine was very
pleased that Microsoft had taken the time to email him at work about
their new security patch. He opened it.


That is arguably neither sane nor reasonable.



I know a lady who fell for that one TWICE and then got insulted when
someone questioned her intelligence by having to explain all for a
second time less than a month later.

-Bill M

Roger wrote:
Bill wrote on 29/02/2004 15:13:


In message , Roger Halstead
writes


I always wondered is any one ever fell for them.

They do, a perfectly sane and reasonable colleague of mine was very
pleased that Microsoft had taken the time to email him at work about
their new security patch. He opened it.


That is arguably neither sane nor reasonable.



I know a lady who fell for that one TWICE and then got insulted when
someone questioned her intelligence by having to explain all for a
second time less than a month later.

-Bill M

"Peter Gottlieb" wrote in message ...
Mydoom.F just got into one machine here which had McAfee running and fully
updated. McAfee then could not clean it. The free cleaner from Symantec
(Norton AV) did the job.

You can build up all sorts of defences, or you can switch over to Linux,
which I am strongly considering for this office.

Who sez that Linux is "bulletproof" in this context? In the extreme
assume that *everybody* switched to Linux: How long might you suppose
it would take for the spammers to bust Linux and go on doing "business
as usual"?

I'll give 'em ten minutes . . .

Brian w3rv



"Gary S." Idontwantspam@net wrote in message
...
On Wed, 25 Feb 2004 17:01:23 +0000 (UTC), (Mike
Andrews) wrote:

In (rec.radio.amateur.boatanchors),
Cecil Moore wrote:
wrote:

dbjjvlhdbrpobcmbngkgdtxpoevsvbqgrocymgcgfswjqeknbn zxqlezzbvbydrbkwvttesckwdn
mwtcs

Just curious, does this string of letters have any meaning?

I suspect it's just a pseudorandomly-generated "hashbuster" to help
the spam avoid filters that hash the message body and check against
known spam.

Exactly. As spamfiltering has gotten better, the spammers have gotten
more sophisticated.

The key clue is the attachment. Besides EXE files, ANY files with the
extensions COM, BAT, SCR, and PIF could also be damaging programs.
Note that sometimes a file will have a name ending in more than one
extension, but only the last one matters. More trickery.

Do not open any attachments that you have the slightest suspicion of,
no matter who appears to have sent them. A friend could have a virus
on their machine, sending out copies to everyone in their address
book.

Get a good antivirus program, including Norton Antivirus or MacAfee,
which gets frequent updates of virus definitions, and run it on EVERY
file received, via email, Internet, or disk.

The time and money you should put into prevention are a tiny fraction
of what could be involved in recovering from a virus on your machine.

Happy trails,
Gary (net.yogi.bear)
------------------------------------------------
at the 51st percentile of ursine intelligence

Gary D. Schwartz, Needham, MA, USA
Please reply to: garyDOTschwartzATpoboxDOTcom