New Fast-Spreading Sobig Worm Adds to 'Worm Week'

[David Zephyr]

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A new mass e-mail worm that attempts to download files from the Internet and potentially leave computers vulnerable to further attack was spreading quickly around the world on Tuesday, anti-virus experts said.

The new worm, dubbed Sobig.F, is at least the fourth new, major Internet worm to hit computers worldwide in the past week, prompting anti-virus vendor F-Secure to declare this the "worst virus week ever."

Sobig.F, a variant of an older worm, began spreading on Monday in Europe and has infected an estimated tens of thousands of Windows-based computers, said Patrick Hinojosa, chief technology officer at Panda Software, based in Madrid.

Complete Story:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030819/wr_nm/tech_worm_dc_11

[LeighAnn]

1. No doubt. Never seen anything like it

I've gotten at least 100 of these from my email at www.hannityisamoron.com

I thought I was just getting freeped.

[David Zephyr]

2. We Are Being Inundated with E-Mails, But

Norton says that we do not have the Sobig.F bug/worm.

Do you think it is possible to be receiving hundreds and hundreds of e-mails with attachments and yet not have the virus.

Norton is blowing out all the attachments, so we couldn't open them if we wanted to.

Is this the same thing you are experiencing?

Thanks for responding. :hi:

[LeighAnn]

7. Here's the scan and fix from Symantec.

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/[e-mail]

It said there was no sobig.f on my computer, I didn't think so because my email doesn't open attatchments, it's just a matter of double-deleting them so that they don't eat up my hard drive space. Every time I check my email there's another dozen or so. It's just crazy.

[David Zephyr]

8. My Situation Exactly.

I had found the removal tool from your earlier link. It also informed me that there was no "sobig.f" on my computer either, but we still keep getting pounded with e-mails from all over the world (Germany, UK, Taiwan, and of course, the U.S.). My Norton keeps eliminating the attachments, but like you, I am double-deleting like crazy.

This is such a waste of time and energy.

Thanks for your comments, for although I'm sorry you are experiencing this, you are the first person to share that you are going through the same thing. I hope no one else here at the DU suffers with this mess.

[jiacinto]

13. I got the sobig virus tonight

And it was a pain getting off the computer.

[Nlighten1]

9. This tool doesn't work.

I used it today and it said there were no virii on my PC but I did a manual uninstall of this virus and found it just where it was supposed to be.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

3. My having only Windows95 saved me last week

I wonder how long my luck will hold?
Also, I only use my earthlink webmail now, and I think that should offer some additional protection.

[David Zephyr]

4. A Friend Who Has Window 98 Says the Same Thing.

And he refuses to "update" for the very same reason.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

5. but 98 was a target last week.

:shrug:

[Llewlladdwr]

15. Don't count on obsolescence to protect you forever.

The whole 9x family ('cept for maybe ME) is no longer having patches written for it but you should update as much as you can and then load good firewall and antivirus products. Otherwise any fool could google the tools and step by step instructions for taking right over your machine. The Web is a wild place, be careful out there. :)

[pansypoo53219]

6. hmmm

i did have a shitload of nothing e-mails,easy to delete, but my imac seems pretty clear of this MS worm shit.
NO WINDOWS.

[KTM]

10. UGH

26 hours of work in two days...

Why I oughta...

Hey you punk-ass virus writers - name the place... me & some of my coworkers have a present for ya...

[tsipple]

11. Linux Unaffected. Mac Unaffected.

Although Linux and Mac users have to put up with all the infected Windows PCs that are spewing garbage e-mails at an ever-increasing clip. That's how this worm operates. I'm up to about 10 received e-mails per minute from victims of this worm.

Does anyone STILL need a wakeup call that Windows is the problem?

[Llewlladdwr]

14. Whoa!

You're right tsipple! I'm blowing away Windows right now and loading Linux! That'll hold me 'til I can get down to the Apple store and buy new Macs to replace all my Intel boxes! Linux and OSX gotta be better than Win since they don't seem to get nearly the number of viruses written for 'em!

...Or maybe, just maybe, not enough people actually USE Linux and OSX to make it worthwhile to write viruses for 'em. Ya think? :)

[Abaques]

19. *nix based operating systems are inherently more secure

The way unix based operating systems are designed is just inherently more secure then the model that both the older win95/98/Me and newer winNT/2k/XP are based on.

It mostly has to do with the permissions that windows has to give things to run effectively.


If you want to actually give linux a chance without having to do any work at all on your system, then try knoppix.

Just download the latest iso image, burn it to cd, stick it in your cdrom and then reboot. It'll give you a good idea of what linux can do. I recomend having at least 256mb of ram though, it does run only off cd, so its slower then if you installed it on your hard drive.

[jiacinto]

12. I got that virus tonight

Go the lounge--thanks to DUers I was able to get it off my computer. It was so scary.

[Merlin]

16. Go here for a fix. (p.s. W95 & W98 are not immune.)

http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/virusencyclo/default5.asp?VName=WORM_SOBIG.F#solution

(I haven't tried this myself, because I didn't get infected. But I trust the company.)

[Merlin]

17. Details on the worm. DO NOT OPEN UNKNOWN EMAIL ENCLOSURES!!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=202553

[NYC]

18. What does double deleting mean?

Two posters above mentioned it. Can someone please tell me how to do this? Thanks in advance.

[Abaques]

20. It means....

When you delete something from your mailbox, by default it just goes into your trash folder. Deleting twice means that you both delete the message from your inbox and then delete it from your trash, or empty your trash.

[NYC]

21. Thank you.

I do that automatically. Thanks for answering.