New internet worm affects Windows users

[Perry]

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A new Internet virus has been detected that can infect Microsoft's Windows platforms faster than previous computer worms, said an anti-virus computer software maker.

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The ZOTOB virus appeared shortly after the world's largest software maker warned of three newly found "critical" security flaws in its software, including one that could allow attackers to take complete control of a computer.

The latest worm exploits security holes in Microsoft's Windows 95, 98, ME, NE, 2000 and XP platforms and can give computer attackers remote access to affected systems, said Trend Micro Inc.

"Hundreds of infection reports were sighted in the United States and Germany," Tokyo-based Trend Micro said in a statement released late last week.

"Since most users may not be aware of this newly announced security hole so as to install the necessary patch during last weekend, we can foresee more infections from WORM_ZOTOB," it said.

The latest virus drops a copy of itself into the Windows system folder as BOTZOR.EXE and modifies the system's host file in the infected user's computer to prevent the user getting online assistance from antivirus web sites, Trend Micro added.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050815/...apore_virus_dc

[Bugaboo]

Told my husband and he set my host file to "read only" thanks for the heads up Perry!

[sadie147]

Having quality virus protection (you must also ensure you are receiving the updated signature files as they are published), and downloading microsofts security patches (if windows is your o/s) is imperative for anyone that owns a PC. Virus scanning is a large part of my job (email servers for a large company), they come out at an alarming rate, and can be very destructive. I have spent far too much of my time going to friends houses to clean up their PC's. I believe that Symantec/Norton Antivirus is well worth the 49.95 cost. http://www.symantec.com/product/index_homecomp.html though there are others.

it'll save you alot of aggravation and costs in the long run.

[Bugaboo]

You're absolutely right Sadie! My husband is a server admin and ended up going in last night around midnight because of server patches because of some virus. He was patching them from home and had a server that didn't respond so he had to go in. There have been several times viruses caused me to not see my husband except for maybe 5 mins a day. Another good way to protect yourself is to be wary of e-mails with attachments, ad filled off shoot search engines and any site that has game cheats, free music...etc...they're usually loaded with spy ware. Yahoo, which is my home page, downloaded some new tool bar on my browser and within 24hrs I had a trojan. Got rid of the toolbar (that I didn't ask for ) and I'm not having any more problems. Being careful and trying to prevent viruses can be very crucial to the health of your computer.