Yes, I know, this is an unlikely subject for the Tech Shed. But I have just received an e-mail plus attachment from [email protected] titled Paris Hilton and Nicol Richie. Pity that Norton Antivirus tells me that the attachment is/contains a virus. :(

I received a warning email about that yesterday, I think it's the sober worm !

She is a minx though

I have had a couple of virus laden emails lately, all of which were contained in images. Thankfully Nod32 scans all my email and keeps me clean.

Be careful.

You would have thought tha Paris Hilton would have had ehought WORMS in her time

Seriously the last couple of days I have been swamped with viruses. Get maybe 50 copies of the same email all with the same virus. Bloody Norton warns me of each one and makes me click on finish before it will download anything else - 50 times is no fun. One said it came from the cia and another from the fbi!! Oh yeah ......

Has anybody else had this problem lately?

Not really had much trouble - that said, I try to ensure that anyone I know who uses email also has some kind of virus scanner installed that is free and auto-updates when they're online. Also I push for having a firewall enabled for those on dialup, or when on broadband, to use a NAT router. Sure it's not perfect but it generally helps.

Most virusses get activated by those users who don't bother with a virus scanner, and then those machines get turned into spamming/virus-sending boxes. I'm sure Sony's recent assistance with this will have assisted this once again :(

The other thing is the Windows update thing. A lot of people don't bother updating - ever - which means you're wide-open. One wrong click and you're stuffed. Same effect. Same thing does apply to linux versions and Apple-originated OS of course, but they are usually run by computer-savvy people or just not targeted enough (yet ).

If you get a lot of these, I'd recommend dropping those that come from people you know an email back with a link to say AVG (grisoft.com) and help them sort out their machine(s)

Unfortunately it is not as simple as that. This type of virus usually hides where it has really come from and instead puts up an email address that is either stolen or made up. For example what are the chances that the 50 I got really came from the CIA or FBI?? I would imagine their virus software would be up to date. I did try what you suggest a while back but it was obvious that the email was not going to the culprit machine.

Has anybody else had this problem lately?

75 this morning - over 100 yesterday. All related to this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4466016.stm

No infections, in the office, luckily, but :thumbdwn: all the same...

jonny5ive posted a similar thread this morning

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/showthread.php?p=483765#post483765