new computer virus "please read"

owey

VERY IMPORTANT WARNING


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.

cdbrown

That message is a hoax
http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/lifevirus.html

However there was an exploit found in powerpoint which allows hackers to install keyloggers which I'm sure has now been corrected.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5195838.stm

Smiley_Mum

Thanks for the info, I'll pass it on. I tend to go onto my webmail first and go through all the spam first before downloading. I did notice an email with Microsoft in the title but just deleted it.

I take it you can't do a system restore on your PC. I don't know too much about technical things, perhaps someone will be along in a bit to help. Hope you manage to recover things.

I've been having problems with my PC recently, think it may be down to a conflict between Spyware Blaster and SpywareGuard which I just recently installed. My PC in the last couple of days has the icons flickering constantly or the info in the address bar flickering and you can't do anything. It eventually goes off though. I've virus checked everything, adaware, etc etc and it's all clear. So fingers crossed I don't have a serious problem.

Smiley_Mum

Smiley_Mum wrote:

Thanks for the info, I'll pass it on. I tend to go onto my webmail first and go through all the spam first before downloading. I did notice an email with Microsoft in the title but just deleted it.

I take it you can't do a system restore on your PC. I don't know too much about technical things, perhaps someone will be along in a bit to help. Hope you manage to recover things.

I've been having problems with my PC recently, think it may be down to a conflict between Spyware Blaster and SpywareGuard which I just recently installed. My PC in the last couple of days has the icons flickering constantly or the info in the address bar flickering and you can't do anything. It eventually goes off though. I've virus checked everything, adaware, etc etc and it's all clear. So fingers crossed I don't have a serious problem.

Just seen the above post, thanks. Can't be too careful though.

owey

Yeh me too, got it emailed to me, so if its a hoax, thats good news for everyone.

postingalwaysposting

thanks op... but as have been said this has been doing the rounds for ages... a simple way of not getting hacked/virus'/trojans is do as i do... NEVER open any emails from anyone who you dont know or that you dont understand/reconise the title its worked so far :rolleyes:

superscaper

I never believe any email forwarded to me unless I check it out first. It is just basically a form of spam/viral email that just gets people to propogate it.

superscaper

cdbrown wrote:

That message is a hoax
http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/lifevirus.html

However there was an exploit found in powerpoint which allows hackers to install keyloggers which I'm sure has now been corrected.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5195838.stm

Thanks for the breakthechain link, not come across that site before, I usually use snopes but I'll definitely add that to my bookmarks.

EvilMonkey

From my days as a helpdesk manager with emails like this the normal give away is the use of well known IT names (AOL, Microsoft) who really don't have anything to do with virus detection. Always worth having a look onthe major virus protection players websites first (I normally check out sophos and mcafee), they also have hoax lists.

E.M.

nickmack

Yes, it's always a good idea to check Hoax lists on AV sites before sending these sort of messages to your entire address book. They just start generating tons of unnecessary mail.

Basically, if you don't know much about viruses, then it's probably better not to pass on these messages.

alanclose

EvilMonkey wrote:

From my days as a helpdesk manager with emails like this the normal give away is the use of well known IT names (AOL, Microsoft) who really don't have anything to do with virus detection. Always worth having a look onthe major virus protection players websites first (I normally check out sophos and mcafee), they also have hoax lists.

E.M.

Sound advice, the second google result for Life is beautiful virus is this from McAfee