Another Virus Warning!!

[Ian_W]

Warning : Worm virus (Swen-A) spreading fast.

 

 

A worm virus pretending to be from Microsoft Support is spreading extremely fast by email due to its cleverly constructed appearance.

 

 

The worm claims to be a technical bulletin from Microsoft including a security update fix but is nothing more than a virus in disguise.

 

 

The worm spreads itself between Windows machines installed with Internet Explorer 5.01 and 5.5 or earlier using a security issue patched in early 2001. This can also be spread by opening an email attachment/ executable file.

 

 

While it is ineffective at propagating itself automatically on machines running Internet Explorer 6, this worm can also spread through Internet Relay Chat, news groups and Peer to Peer file sharing Networks such as Kazaa Lite. Of alarming note is that the virus will try to disable virus protection and firewall software on machines which are infected by running the attachment. The virus is also capable of appearing to be an email server error where it may attempt to gain account details. Anti virus definitions are recommended to be updated immediately.

 

 

 

Microsoft remind everyone that security bulletins and patches are not distributed by email and are only distributed via Windows Update and Windows Automatic Update (Windows XP) facilities.

 

 

Please PERMANENTLY delete any unsolicited email claiming to be from Microsoft support and bearing any form of attachment.

 

A write up on the virus including the bogus html security bulletin screens can be seen on the Symantec web site to aid recognition of the bogus bulletin. The link is reproduced below.

 

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.swen.a@mm.html

 

For more info....

 

[Big J R]

Thanks Ian.

 

I'll pass this round my social groups.

 

It would seem that X/P users are fairly safe, or am I being too optimistic ??

[Urchin Boy]

Just Recieved It In My Inbox And My Dad's !

 

Deleted It Straight Away !