 Beware Of The Code Red Virus!
I received an e-mail from a customer I know pretty good today, or so I thought?
It was actually from his virus infected computer.
Fortunately I did not open the attachment ( might not have effected a Mac but definitely would effect a PC.
Subject was: "Hi! How are you?"
The copy read: "I send you this file in order to have your advice
see you later. Thanks
The attached file was titled: "DOMINGOUES#3.doc.bat
I called him imediately and told him his computer had the virus he thought I was crazy but to his surprise he found the computer he had shut down this morning, on and on the internet and sending e-mails to everyone in his addressbook.
BE CAREFUL WHEN OPENING ATTACHMENTS!
Check out the story below, ask Beth for help if you suspect you might have been infected.
July 30, 2001
Clock Ticking on Code Red Virus
By:Pamela Hess, United Press International
Total posts: 8
WASHINGTON, Jul 30, 2001 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- Computer security specialists said the Code Red computer worm presents a "very real and present threat to the Internet" and warn there were only a few hours left to act before the virus reinfects computers.
Code Red, which could cause widespread Internet outages, is likely to start spreading again at 8 p.m. EDT Tuesday and has mutated so that it may be even more dangerous than before.
An alert from the federal government, Microsoft, the Carnegie Mellon University's Computer Emergency Response Team and others says the virus has the potential to disrupt business and personal use of the Internet for applications such as electronic commerce, e-mail and entertainment.
Some researchers believe Code Red may have been created by Chinese hackers. One version defaces Web pages while another remains hidden, but the real danger comes from the amount of automated traffic the virus will generate on the Internet.
"The worm scans the Internet, identifies vulnerable systems, and infects these systems by installing itself. Each newly installed worm joins all the others, causing the rate of scanning to grow rapidly. This uncontrolled growth in scanning directly decreases the speed of the Internet and can cause sporadic but widespread outages among all types of systems," states the alert.
Code Red began replicating on July 19 and infected 250,000 systems in just nine hours. The worm was set to launch a coordinated, automated attack on the White House Web server on July 20, but network administrators changed the White House's Internet Protocol address and foiled the operation.
The Pentagon shut down public access to most of its Web sites for nearly five days last week while it protected its system from the worm. Military computers in the U.S. military's European Command were hit especially hard by the bug, a military official told United Press International.
Only users of Microsoft Windows NT or Windows 2000 who also use the IIS Web server are vulnerable to the worm.
Getting rid of the worm, if it is already installed, is simple: reboot the computer. Microsoft has also issued a patch, like a software "Band Aid," to correct the problem and prevent reinfection.
The alert was issued by Microsoft; The National Infrastructure Protection Center; Federal Computer Incident Response Center; Information Technology Association of America; CERT Coordination Center; SANS Institute; Internet Security Systems and Internet Security Alliance. | 
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