Re: Take a look at security update for Microsoft Internet Explorer

On Tue, 23 Sep 2003 12:34:04 GMT, Brent <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

>OrionCA wrote:
>
>> On Sun, 21 Sep 2003 21:15:37 GMT, Brent <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>>>Snowmane wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>Watch out for this!!!! It appears to be the SWEN (sp) worm that has been 
>>>>going around. I get about 15 to 20 e-mails a day in my hotmail box with 
>>>>some type of this thing. DON'T OPEN IT or RUN THE FILE IT RECOMENDS. 
>>>>Check the various sites for the security updates!!!
>>>>
>>>>Snowmane
>>>>
>>>>
>>>I'm getting about 250 per day trapped in my spam blocker.  Problem is 
>>>it's filling up my email folder and the ISP keeps threatening to disable 
>>>my email.
>>>
>> 
>> Set your mail program to automatically pull mail every few minutes,
>> then leave it running in background.  That will keep your mailbox from
>> filling up.  This new attack is actually a DDOS because it uses an old
>> exploit that most PCs are immune to now.  The volume is high because
>> the PCs that aren't updated and are infected are spewing these out by
>> the hundreds per hour.   The writer wasn't expecting to infect many
>> PCs, just jam the servers with the sheer volume.  
>> --
>> I'm on a journey in search of myself.
>> If I get back first, let me know that I'm 
>> looking for myself and don't let me leave.
>> 
>
>On dial up, I'd never get them all downloaded or I'd be doing nothing 
>but that all the time.

The alternative is to let your mailbox fill up with the crap until
everything bounces (which appears to be the goal of the current
attack).  There are mail-proxy programs that will periodically TELNET
into your mailbox and filter messages you don't want to read but these
still have to d/l the material to read it.  If you have a shell
account you're lucky because you can load a PROCMAIL script to the
server and have it filter your mail 24/7 even if you're offline but
those aren't available to most people, unfortunately.

I haven't stuck my head out of my filters recently to look but  the
flood hasn't slowed down.  In the past half hour they've deleted 289
emails, most of those probably these viruses.  About 5-10 have
'leaked" through so that works out to roughly 600 per hour.  If
everyone is getting hammered like this then the mail system should be
on the virge of collapse.
--
I'm on a journey in search of myself.
If I get back first, let me know that I'm 
looking for myself and don't let me leave.