#warning a computer virus is about

[sesley]

A friendly warning form another forum.

 

Please read the message below. Please Be Extremely Careful

 

>> especially if using internet mail such as Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL and so on.

>> This information arrived this morning direct from both Microsoft and

>> Norton. Please send it to everybody you know who has access to the

>> Internet. You may receive an apparently harmless email with a Power Point

>> presentation 'Life is beautiful.' If you receive it DO NOT OPEN

>> THE FILE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES , and delete it immediately. If you open

>> this file, a message will appear on your screen saying: 'It is too late

>> now, your life is no longer beautiful.' Subsequently you will LOSE

>> EVERYTHING IN YOUR PC and the person who sent it to you will gain access

>> to your name, e-mail and password. This is a new virus which started to

>> circulate on Saturday afternoon. AOL has already confirmed the severity,

>> and the antivirus software's are not capable of destroying it. The virus

>> has been created by a hacker who calls himself 'life owner.' PLEASE SEND

>> A COPY OF THIS EMAIL TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS and ask them to PASS IT ON

>> IMMEDIATELY

[fiorelli]

Sorry Sesley, this is a hoax (See here: http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/life.asp).

 

Although it does give a valuable lesson, not to open anything from people we don't know/e-mails we are not exxpecting.

[sesley]

doh is it? the BBC have removed my posts trying to pass on the warning.

[flipper]

doh is it? the BBC have removed my posts trying to pass on the warning.

 

Absolutely, 100% hoax.

 

Best thing to do with anything like this is to immediately go to Google and type in the name of the warning (Life Is Beautiful) followed by hoax and see what you get...

 

Snopes.com is a very good resource - they are the urban-myth debunking site - but you will also see hits from the likes of Symantec, McAfee, CA, Sophos etc - all of whom will have the hoax information available.

 

These hoaxes work by feeding on panic - thus you (with all good intent) post to forums and send multiple emails, which only serves to overload corporate email systems and networks - thus achieving its aim of causing disruption!

 

Fiorelli is absolutely right in her assumption not to open unexpected attachments, though.

 

In general, virus warnings should come either from your company IT department, or very occasionally as alerts from a trusted source (usually someone working in IT!).

 

Most importantly - you should have an up-to-date anti-virus package on your machine!

 

(End of preaching, sorry - working in IT I do see a lot of this).

 

Phil