Antelope Valley Microcomputer Users Group - Miscellaneous Announcements

Miscellaneous Announcements

W32/Bagle.aq@MM is a Medium Risk mass-mailing worm that tries to open a hacker backdoor on your PC. Launched by code hidden inside a ZIP attachment, the virus spreads by emailing itself to stolen contacts and via popular file-sharing programs such as KaZaa, Bearshare and Limewire. It also tries to terminate anti-virus and other security software operation.

What should I look for?

FROM: Varies (spoofed)
SUBJECT: Blank
BODY: Examples: new price, The password is, Password:
ATTACHMENT: Examples: price.zip, price2.zip, price_new.zip

How do I know if you have been infected?

Communication Port 80 (TCP) open. Outgoing messages with noted body content and ZIP attachments.

Make sure you update your anti-virus software.

Be on the look out for a bogus US Bank email. It is a scam. Here is a description of the email.
Some internet users have been receiving emails claiming to be from US Bank, informing them that their online banking account had been shut down, and would remain shut until they confirmed their contact details. The link contained inside the emails may at first glance appear to be legitimate, but it really redirected users to a website based in Korea in an attempt to steal users' account details.

A typical example of the scam email follows:

We regret to inform you, that we had to block your U.S. Bank account because we have been notified that your account may have been compromised by outside parties.

Our terms and conditions you agreed to state that your account must always be under your control or those you designate at all times. We have noticed some activity related to your account that indicates that other parties may have access and or control of your information in your account. These parties have in the past been involved with money laundering, illegal drugs, terrorism and various Federal Title 18 violations. In order that you may access your account we must verify your identity by clicking on the link below.

Please be aware that until we can verify your identity no further access to your account will be allowed and we will have no other liability for your account or any transactions that may have occurred as a result of your failure to reactivate your account as instructed below.

Before you reactivate your account, all payments have been frozen, and you will not be able to use your account in any way until we have verified your identity.

What to Do? If you receive this or a similar message, you are advised not to reply to it or forward it to your friends and colleagues. The best advice is simply to delete the email.

Hackers Use Phoney Bin Laden Suicide Note

Source: United Press International

LONDON (United Press International via COMTEX) -- A British computer security group says hackers are sending e-mails supposedly containing evidence that Osama bin Laden has killed himself.

The e-mails direct users to a website where a file containing photographs of the alleged suicide can be downloaded; in reality, though, downloaders lose control of computers to the hackers, al-Jazeera said Saturday.

"Computer users who fall for the bin Laden hoax may be hit by a Trojan horse," the U.K.-based anti-virus firm Sophos warned Friday, naming the new scheme the Hackarmy Trojan Horse.

"Thousands of messages have been posted onto Internet message boards and usenet newsgroups claiming that journalists from CNN found the al-Qaida leader's hanged body earlier this year," Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, said.

"Hackers and virus writers will try all kinds of tricks to entice people into downloading their malicious code," Cluley said. "It seems this time that the hacker has focused on the public's morbid curiosity and appetite for news on the war against terror."

Copyright 2004 by United Press International.