[WEB4LIB] ILOVEYOU -Reply

[Thomas Dowling]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Janice White (Tel (613))" <Janice.White at fct-cf.x400.gc.ca>
To: "Multiple recipients of list" <web4lib at webjunction.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2000 11:51 AM
Subject: [WEB4LIB] ILOVEYOU -Reply


> Watch out folks.  It might be invading your address books.  I just got
this off this listserv.  DONT OPEN anything with this on it.  I rec'd it
earlier as well and luckly we cannot open executable files so it did not
go any further here.  If it had it would have infected over 600 plus more
people.
>

Web4Lib is really not the most productive place to diagnose this virus,
but for what it's worth:

The virus is a visual basic script that Outlook (and possibly Outlook
Express) will execute automatically when the message is read.  Unlike Word
Basic scripts, there's no need to explicitly open the attachment in
Outlook.

The script shows up as being 12k in size--and thus a violation of Web4Lib
posting policy. :-)  Any reasonable mail program, including Outlook
Express, will let you delete or otherwise handle messages with the word
"ILOVEYOU" in the subject line and/or a message size of 12k.

Bear in mind that the people sending the virus are probably not aware
they're doing it--no need to flame them, report them to their postmasters,
etc.

The most authoritative treatments I've see so far are
http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/love.htm and
http://www.cert.org/current/current_activity.html .  Bear in mind that
these and most other virus sites are really swamped today.

Thomas Dowling
OhioLINK - Ohio Library and Information Network
tdowling at ohiolink.edu