| March 13, 2000
Ok, so we all survived Y2K. While I'm sure some companies were busy worrying alone in some dark cramped cubicle, the Staff at BeVar Systems Had very pleasant company indeed, Stevie Case, a designer with the Quake III Team. Check out our favorite programmer here! Who Says programming is for geeks? :)
December 20, 1999
Symantec, makers of Norton Anti-Virus, sent us a WARNING Email on
December 18, 1999 alarming all computer users about a Prilissa Virus scheduled to be
released on Christmas December 25, 1999. And, the big one is, if you all don't update your
Virus definitions before the 25th YOU will be susceptible to this new virus.
So! To help all of you prepare for the upcoming increase in virus
activity as well as patch the myriad of security holes in Windows and Internet Explorer,
BeVar Systems will lower it's labor rate by 50% at our office or at YOUR business or
residence. Call us at 757-3755 for details and we'll help make sure your systems are ready
for the New Millennium. This offer only good through December 24th. Details on imminent
Christmas and Y2K Viruses follow.
Ok, we've all heard about the Y2K bug. An error in bookkeeping run
amuck in the computer age. Who would have thought that two missing digits in the date
could cause so much trouble, right? Well, we all know it's coming and we're all getting
ready for it, or at least, we should be. :)
Well, it seems that Y2K will be the least of our worries this year. With the dawn of the
new Millennium at hand, the crazies are out, and out in force. Y2K is not a malicious
attack. It is, very simply an error made a few years back coming back to haunt us. But the
crazies have prepared a very special "Welcome to the new Millennium" gift for
all of us: Viruses... dozens of them.
Virus and computer experts across the country, including BeVar Systems, are expecting the
amount of virus activity in the last week of 1999 and the first week of 2000 to increase
anywhere from 200% to 500% from it's a normal levels. New Viruses targeted to activate on
the birth of the new Millennium are, as the song says, "springing up all over."
Make no mistake about it, this isn't your run-of-the-mill virus scare. As all of you know,
we at BeVar Systems avoid pushing the panic button unless we see a real danger to you and
your data.
The viruses scheduled to attack will run the full range of formats and attacks, and no PC
connected to the internet, even if only fleetingly, is completely safe. It is not within
the scope of this article to cover the literally dozens of viruses that are scheduled to
activate on or near New Years, but I will mention one that looks particularly damaging
scheduled to activate Christmas Day. The following warning is from Symantec's AntiVirus
research Center
WARNING: XMAS VIRUS
Symantec announced the discovery of a new virus,
W97.Priliss.A on November 22. Users of Norton AntiVirus
will automatically be protected against the new virus
W97.Prilissa.A, as long as they Live Update. The self-
propagating virus infects Microsoft Word 97 documents. It
spreads itself by sending the infected document as an
e-mail attachment by using Microsoft Outlook to the first
50 addresses in each address book.
Once the infected document is opened, the virus disables
protection security settings, conversion confirmation and
recently opened file list. The virus automatically checks
the system clock and on December 25, the following text is
displayed in a message box when users boot their machine:
"Vine! Vide! Vice! Moslem Power Never End! You
Dare Rise Against Me! The Human Era is Over, The CyberNET
Era Has Come!!!" The program then overwrites the
AUTOEXEC.BAT file to format the C: drive and displays the
following message when the system is rebooted: "Vine!
Vide! Vice! Moslem Power Never End! Your Computer Has
Just Been Terminated by -=CyberNET=-Virus!!"
Norton AntiVirus users can protect themselves from this
virus by using Live Update.
Ok, so this appears to be one of the baddies for the year. This program propagates by
sending an email with a file containing the virus to the first 50 people in your address
book. There are many other viruses in addition to this one. This one simply appears to be
more common. There are a slew of other viruses that, depending on where you'll be tramping
around the internet, you may or may not be able to contract.
The buzz word to remember, folks, is careful. Be very careful these next few weeks. As a
matter of fact, be careful this entire next year. If you don't have antivirus software, go
out and get some. Make sure to scan any files downloaded before you run them, and do the
same with any documents.
November 16, 1999
Cyberterrorism. Scary word, isn't it? Well
what you might be thinking is probably nothing compared to what some people are saying
about this rather mysterious part of the new technological world we live in. Now, with
reports of end-of-the-millenium virus activity likely to peak and opportunists the world
over looking to take advantage of "easy pickings," the hype is reaching a
fervor. From the President of the United States on down the cries are going up for the
governement to do something about it.
But do something about what? What is going on? What
could happen? What can't? The internet experts at BeVar Systems have decided to do a
special report on this new and very real threat. However, as always, we're not jumping on
the bandwagon with the rest of the panic-peddlers, we're exposing this situation to the
light. It's about time.
Read the Special Report on
Cyberterrorism
November 15, 1999
Let there be no doubt,
this sucker is stirring up alot of noise. But is it necessary? Is this the doomsday Virus?
Check out a complete discussion of this Virus under The
Dirt About Viruses.
November 8, 1999
Let there be no doubt,
the hot news today is the announcement by a federal judge that Microsoft is a monopoly...
not that this comes as a big shock to any of us working in the computer industry. Of
course Microsoft is a monopoly! Well, to be specific Microsoft has been so efficient in
distributing it's operating system that it has absolutely crushed its competition.
Despite what Linux and
OS/2 Users might tell you about how well their systems run, the plain truth of the matter
is that if you want to buy software easily and without needing to search the internet to
find it, you must run Windows 95/98.
Windows may not be the
best operating system on earth, but it's not the worst, either. The main complaints
(backed up by fact, that is) about Microsoft Windows, and they are legitimate, are that
Windows costs too much and that it is a memory and hard drive space hog.
But before I get lost in
a tangent debating that, what does this announcement mean to you, the consumer? Well,
that's not so easy a question to answer. Will Microsoft be split up into
"BabySofts" like The Bells were? Unlikely. Will it's software plummet in price?
Knowing Microsoft, unlikely. While these things may be unlikely, they are not impossible.
I think that the most
likely change we will see from this is a reorganization of Microsoft internally and a lot
of gloating from the Linux, Mac and OS/2 User's groups.
Of course, this doesn't
mean anything, really, to you, at least not for the time being. OS/2 is dead, sorry guys.
Macs are only a small percentage of home users despite the brief success of the eMac.
Linux? Well, that has a good chance, but by the time Linux is as universal as Windows (2
or 3 years) it will probably be as bloated as Windows is currently.
So what's the end result
of all this? Well, plainly...nothing. You'll still buy Windows and you'll still buy
Windows software...for the time being, at least. This case will not be the last of it's
kind, for sure. The trend in the computer industry must be some sort of
universality. Whether that universal constant is Windows or Linux or some operating system
not yet invented, it is only a matter of time before the world (and despite what they may
think, the Department of Justice is actually a part of this world) realizes that they must
adopt a standard for all users. Only then will we finally approach the point where
computers will be useful and maybe even fun and easy to use! Wow! What a concept!
Remember, there aren't 3
or 4 operating systems in Star Trek. Of course, it wasn't Microsoft Windows, either. Then
again, they did do away with money...
Download the Findings of
Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, United States vs. Microsoft.
Both are Self extracting Zip Files. Run the programs to extract the documents. For
Windows 3.X/95/98 Only.
Word 97 Format - 145Kb -
Easier to read
Plain Text Format - 131Kb
November 5, 1999
The $800 from
Microsoft Hoax
Well, this morning the email was filled with promises of quick cash from everyone's
favorite philanthropists, Bill Gates and the gang at Microsoft. This, my friends, is a
hoax. In my estimation (and mind you, this is my estimation) there seem like there are
around 400,000 of these hoaxes floating around. The text for this little gem goes
something like this, though you may have slight variations:
Netscape and AOL have recently
merged to form the largest internet company in the world. In an effort to remain at pace
with this giant, Microsoft has introduced a new email tracking system as a way to keep
Internet Explorer as the most popular browser on the market. This email is a beta test of
the new software and Microsoft has generously offered to compensate who participate in the
testing process. For each person you send this email to, you will be given $5. For every
person they give it to, you will be given an additional $3. For every person they send it
to you will receive $1. Microsoft will tally all the emails produced under your name over
a two Week period and then email you with more instructions. This beta test is only for
Microsoft Windows users because the email tracking device that contacts Microsoft is
embedded into the code of Windows 95 and 98. I know you guys hate forwards. But I started
this a month ago because I Was very short on cash. A week ago I got an email from
Microsoft asking me For my address. I gave it to them and yesterday I got a check the mail
for $800. It really works. I wanted you to get a piece of the action. You won't regret it.
The problems with this email are
three-fold.
Why would Microsoft pay people to do
what they've been doing since the dawn of the internet for free? These
little messages have been going around, especially on
America On-Line, for years. Microsoft is generally in the habit of taking your
money for nothing, not paying you for it.
Email Tracking? Can you imagine what
would happen if Microsoft were to announce publicly that it's been tracking the email sent
through Internet Explorer/Outlook Express? The lawsuits would fly like smart-alek cracks
at my last family reunion. If Microsoft is doing something like this, believe me, they
don't want anyone to know about it. Remember the hub-bub caused when Intel announced that
they were tracking their Pentium III processors? Imagine that reaction 100 times more
powerful.
I'm no Microsoft groupie, but the
reasoning behind the letter is flawed. Internet explorer already IS the most popular
browser... By roughly a 3-1 margin. I doubt Microsoft would be willing to pay extra money
to simply make their browser MORE popular.
This hoax, and hoaxes like it aren't
really, Virus hoaxes, per se. They are more of a constant nagging annoyance cluttering
email Inboxes the world over.
It Takes Guts to Say Jesus Hoax
Ok, So there's a theme for the top
stories this week, and that theme is: "Things that greatly annoy Shawn." Ok, no
seriously the theme is virus hoaxes. The following is more of a classic virus hoax than
the $800 from Microsoft Hoax. This hoax is usually a forwarded message containing
something very similar to what follows:
"WARNING
If you receive an email titled "It Takes Guts to Say 'Jesus', DO NOT OPEN IT.
It will erase everything on your hard drive. This information was announced on 21 April by
IBM stating that this is a very dangerous virus, much worse than "Melissa", and
that there is NO remedy for it this time.
Some very sick individual has succeeded in using the reformat function from Norton
Utilities causing it to completely erase all documents on the hard drive. It has been
designed to work with Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. It destroys
Macintosh and IBM compatible computers.
This is a new, very malicious virus and not many people know about it.
Pass this warning along to EVERYONE in your address book and please share it with
all your online friends ASAP so that this threat may be stopped.
Please practice cautionary measures and tell anyone that may have access to your
computer. Forward this warning to everyone that might access the Internet."
Ok, so now that you've read through
this, you doubtless realize, "Hey, I get stuff like that all the time!" So let's
take a close look at why this warning is bogus.
A Virus has been released that erases
your hard drive would be on every news station in the country. The fact that only IBM is
announcing this makes me wary. Just look at the fervor raised in the media when news was
released about a dangerous little virus known to us as Chernobyl (technically known
WIN95.CIH in virus researcher lingo, which is similar to hieroglyphics, only more
difficult to understand). It was a strange twist on reality to turn on my nightly local
news to hear them talking about computer viruses. Red flag number 1- lack of reporting
from other media sources.
Melissa (AKA Mailissa) did not destroy
your hard drive. It annoyed, pestered and slowed the email boxes of the entire computing
industry, but it did not erase your hard drive. In reality, Melissa was truly a minor
infection. The massive down time generated by removing it, not from having to restart lost
work. Comparing the two, Guts and Melissa, the hoax writer shows a bit of
ignorance. True reports of this nature are usually far more accurate and researched. A
Virus such as the one described in this hoax would better be compared to Chernobyl.
Red Flag number 2- lack of accurate virus knowledge in the message text.
If IBM (or AOL, since they are often
quoted in this hoax as well) were to release such a major announcement, why would your
friend who sent you this hoax know about it and not you? Generally by the time you receive
this hoax it's been forwarded at least 3 times. There are far more efficient ways for a
huge company like IBM to get the word out than through your mother's best friend in Ohio,
who's been on AOL for 3 months and is "really good with these computer things." Red
Flag Number 3- Delivery method
The third paragraph is the jewel in
this hoax. According to this message, the hoax writer has pulled off something
extraordinary that no other programmer in the world has managed to do: This virus works on
any computer you want. WOW! Mac or PC, Explorer or Netscape, doesn't matter. This virus
will destroy you. There is no safe place to hide! Of course, this is nonsense. If a person
could write a virus to work on either PC's or Mac's he'd be running the most powerful
software company in the universe. No virus to my knowledge runs on every operating system.
Red Flag Number 4 - Virus can do impossible things!
Ok, so we've got 4 red flags and no
green ones. This must be a hoax. A quick check by The Symantec AntiVirus
Research Center's hoax database confirms our suspicions.
So there's The Dirt on these
hoaxes. For more information many of the other hoaxes floating through the email Inboxes
of the world stop by:
Symantec's
Virus Hoax Database
Symantec's AntiVirus Research Center (SARC) is a source of great information on not only
the hoaxes, but the legitimate articles. |