new virus is out

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> DON T OPEN " A CARD FOR YOU "
> WORST VIRUS EVER ---CNN ANNOUNCED
> PLEASE SEND THIS TO EVERYONE ON YOUR CONTACT LIST !!
>
> A new virus has just been discovered that has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive ever
>
> This virus was discovered yesterday afternoon by McAfee and no vaccine has yet ! been developed. This virus simply destroys Sector Zero from the hard disk, where vital information for its functioning are stored.
> This virus acts in the following manner:
>
> It sends itself automatically to all contacts on your list with the title
> "A Card for You".
> As soon as the supposed virtual card is opened the computer freezes so that the user has to reboot. When the ctrl+alt+del keys or the reset button are pressed, the virus destroys Sector Zero, thus permanently destroying the hard disk. Yesterday in just a few hours this virus caused panic in New York, according to news broadcast by CNN. This alert was received by an employee of Microsoft itself.

> So don't open any mails with subject: "A Virtual Card for You." As soon as


> you get the mail, delete it!! Even if you know the sender !!!


:rolleyes:
 
Its bogus....

Don't bother with this, its bogus. A quick google for a card for you and virus turned up several sites explaining that this is bogus.

People, before you spread this type of stuff around, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do a quick search to see if its true or not!!!!

A couple of major red flags that say its bogus include:

CNN siting things, Microsoft employees responding, and permanent physical damage. Not to mention things like "most destructive ever", and "please send to everyone" almost always means its a hoax.

As a side note, wiping sector zero of your hard disk does NOT permanently destroy it, it just makes life very difficult for people who know what they're doing.

Again, its a hoax people!
 
Disabled Account
Joined 2002
Even if this alert is bogus, it's obvious that virus attacks or whatever attacks will continue to grow and hit windoozz users. All thanks to good ole Bill who promises a better and stable OS for years now and most users buy that.

I recently moved to Linux SuSE 9.0, 9.1 coming up first week of may and happy to work without a thousand bells and whistles to protect my computer. The build-in firewall2 is more than sufficient, the price is lower and you get hundreds of programs. The best thing I like about Linux is the freedom of choice!

Just my 2 cents.
 
Disabled Account
Joined 2002
Of course there are more windoozz users than Linux users, but that's not the main reason why hackers are more interested in windoozzz. The file structure of Linux is different and important files are protected. If you want to install or delete a program in Linux you have to enter your root password first. If a hacker has access to a windoozzz computer he also has immediate access to important program and other files. So a virus on Linux has less chance of destroying important files or information.

On my system I login as a normal user with name and password. If I want to install or delete important progams or files situated in the file-structure called "root" I must login with my root password. Now you may find this a time-consuming procedure, but when a program is installed in Linux no reboot is needed. You can use it rightaway.

There's however detailed information on the net which explains it even better than I do.
I'm running my Linux SuSE system for three months now and if you're willing to learn and do things differently and have a choice to do things and arrange your desktop to make it look and feel the way you want it, you're in for a whole new experience.
 
Franklin said:
Even if this alert is bogus, it's obvious that virus attacks or whatever attacks will continue to grow and hit windoozz users. All thanks to good ole Bill who promises a better and stable OS for years now and most users buy that.

I recently moved to Linux SuSE 9.0, 9.1 coming up first week of may and happy to work without a thousand bells and whistles to protect my computer. The build-in firewall2 is more than sufficient, the price is lower and you get hundreds of programs. The best thing I like about Linux is the freedom of choice!

Just my 2 cents.


I just wanted to jump in and mention a couple of things on this. Keep in mind, I use Linux for my two servers at home, and about half the time on my main home PC, and love it, and will bash MS with the best, but saying that moving from windows will stop the viruses, is only partially correct. Windows gets hit, because its the dominant OS, and its gets all the publicity when problems are found. There are just as many holes, and security issues with Linux. Don't believe me? Just look at the security alerts on the SuSE pages, they're just not as advertised. Also, they're not usually exploited by the latest script viruses released, not to mention most people that run Linux, are not as prone to get viruses even when they run Windows, as they're the ones that are smart enough to not click on all attachments, and things like that.

Once Linux starts gaining a noticeable market share, then we'll start to see viruses and more exploits for Linux.

janneman said:
Maybe the reason that there are so few (successfull) Linux and Apple virus attacks is because there are so few around that the hackers don't find it worthwhile to go through the effort to find the weak spots?

Jan Didden

This is EXACTLY why. It also helps that Linux and macs come locked down, and paranoid, rather than open, and friendly like Windows does. (Mostly because Aunt Bee complains when she has to go explicitly turn something on for her to do her stuff.)

For all those that believe Linux and macs are not vulnerable to viruses and exploits, they'll get their turns, eventually. (Okay, maybe not macs, because they'll never achieve a large market share)
 
Disabled Account
Joined 2002
Schaef,

I didn't say Linux is perfect and we all know that every system or OS can eventually be hacked. What I'm saying is that Linux currently is a saver choice. Another thing is that Linux is Open Source, which means the source-code is freely available and I think that in that sense, hackers are less interested because the challenge is not that strong as it is with windoozz where everything is a big secret. There's no spyware involved in Linux programs while windoozz with it's IE or any other standard program imbedded in the OS rush to their programmed destiny as soon as you're connected to the internet.
Now that's what I call user-friendly!

On the other hand I don't believe in one dominant OS and I don't think Linux aims at becoming such, but given the number new users it's certainly becoming one of the better OSes around with freedom of choice. It's time windoozz starts treating it's users as adults and not as kids who might like the new exciting (buggy) features programmed into XP completely with spyware.
 
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