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From Car Through PSCI Internet
Provider
E-Mail Virus
- Bugbear Virus Shows Big Teeth
Do you have a friend that has recently complained about his or her printer
suddenly printing out reams of gibberish? If so, there's a very good chance that
your friend's computer has been infected by the recently discovered Bugbear
Virus.
The Bugbear Virus continues to be one of the fastest spreading e-mail worms
currently making its way across the Internet. The mass mailing computer virus is
spread by unsuspecting e-mail recipients who open e-mail attachments they
believe to be from their friends. The worm then goes to the recipient's inbox of
Outlook or Outlook Express, grabs a file located on the recipient's computer
(possibly a confidential one) and randomly e-mails this file along with a copy
of the worm (so it actually sends two attachments with each e-mail) to people
listed in the recipient's inbox. The worm also disguises the actual source of
the e-mail by randomly selecting e-mail addresses from the inbox to be shown as
the "sender" of the e-mail. So if a person receives this e-mail worm from a
friend or relative, chances are the person it shows being sent from is probably
not the person who actually sent it. Additionally, the worm can a) choose
randomly from a list of preselected text to insert into the subject line of the
message before it is sent, b) create a new message as a reply e-mail, or c)
forward an existing e-mail message from the infected computer. All of this makes
it pretty difficult for an e-mail recipient to identify an infected e-mail
message prior to opening its attachment.
Bugbear also has a backdoor feature which allows the hacker to take control of
the computer -- allowing the attacker to remotely perform tasks on the infected
computer including the deletion of files, the copying of files and the
termination of processes. In addition, the worm attempts to disable processes of
firewall and anti-virus software programs.
The Bugbear Worm only infects Windows based operating systems that utilize
Outlook or Outlook Express e-mail software. (The worm only infects PCs via an
old flaw in unpatched versions of Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express.)
Macintosh, Unix and Linux operating systems as well as users of Netscape are not
affected by this worm.
Note: Although Bugbear may also cause printers to spit out reams of printed
code, the printers themselves are not actually infected.
Remember NOT to open an attachment, even from friends and relatives, unless
you've first verified that they sent it to you. We also encourage our Internet
customers to utilize anti-virus scanning software and to download updates
frequently to lessen the possibility of computers being infected by e-mail
viruses. As always, simply using caution and some common sense when opening
e-mail attachments can be the best recourse in preventing the spread of e-mail
worms and viruses.
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