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Stop feeding Microsoft's bug habit. Programs so full of holes that they could be labeled as swiss cheese should be banished. Microsoft won't do it; it just doesn't care. You have to.
  technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

Wake up! Get serious about viruses


Dec. 2, 2001


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2001, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2001, The Post Standard

   Hundreds of otherwise bright people have been sending me mail bombs lately. I wish they'd stop.
   I've been receiving dozens of virus-laden messages each time I sit down to do the mail. I'm used to getting a few viruses along with all the other mail. But what's been happening over the last week and a half is unprecedented.
   My antivirus software makes a "bong!" sound every time it catches a virus in the mail, and sometimes I hear more music out of my AV software than I do from my CD player.
   This is crazy. The virus that all these unsuspecting Windows users are sending out is not very clever and it's easy to get rid of. But I'm getting hit by these guided missiles as if nobody out there has any common sense.
   I know that's not true. I know that a lot of Windows users keep their antivirus software up-to-date. I know that a lot of you are very careful with your mail.
   But what about all the others? It couldn't be any more obvious that many of you are clueless. Many of you don't have any antivirus software at all. Many of you open all the attachments that come sailing in, whether you know who sent them or not. Many of you -- surely, MOST of you -- use the brain-dead invention of the world's least trustworthy software company to do you mail with.
   I'm referring to Outlook Express from Microsoft. The latest Windows virus, the one that has been dropping on me like bombs from a B52, is the Badtrans virus, or Badtrans.b Worm, as it is more accurately called. It was designed to take advantage of a gigantic flaw in Outlook Express (and in Outlook, it's expensive big brother).
   If you have a Windows PC and use Outlook Express or Outlook, stop what you are doing and pay attention to what I am telling you. You need to know this. Microsoft won't tell you what I am about to say, and most other Windows experts haven't got a clue, either.
   You don't have to open the message it arrives in, because Outlook Express and Outlook open messages for you. They always open all messages if you view messages in the Preview pane, and they always open the first message that comes into an empty inbox no matter what.
   Attachments are automatically opened, too, if they appear to be the kind of attachments Outlook Express and Outlook use for HTML mail.
   The Badtrans virus arrives as an attachment, activates itself and then sends a copy of itself out to everyone in your address book. It installs a spyware program that monitors all your keystrokes and sends them out to a secret site. Type your password and someone else knows that you typed. Type your credit card number and someone else has just stolen your card.
   Type a love letter to Jennifer and some moron in Bratislava is reading every little snuggly yearning you write about.
   This is totally unacceptable. Right?
   Then do something about it. Stop being so naive.
   First, find out more about this virus. Go to www.symantec.com/avcenter/ and search for this virus by name. You'll learn how to get rid of it if you have it.
   And get good antivirus software if you don't have it already. Install it and keep it up to date. You have no excuse for not doing this, because the best antivirus software, as far as I'm concerned, is free. It's AVG, from www.grisoft.com. It protects Outlook Express mail and Outlook mail so viruses can't get through, period. It also checks files already on your PC. I raved about it recently and would not consider booting up without it.
   You can also stop feeding Microsoft's bug habit. Programs so full of holes that they could be labeled as swiss cheese should be banished. Microsoft won't do it; it just doesn't care. You have to.
   You can choose another e-mail program. Software with the odd name of "The Bat!" is widely regarded as the safest in the Windows world. (You'll see a review on my site, twcny.rr.com/technofile.) It's immune to viruses, and never opens attachments on its own.
   Or you can choose another kind of computer -- a Macintosh, for example. It is immune to Windows viruses. Or a Linux computer, likewise immune.
   No matter what else you do, you MUST wake up. The Badtrans virus is a warning siren. What do you think will happen when hackers -- or terrorists, maybe -- come up with a truly malicious virus that spreads the same way as Badtrans? Are you going to send it out to hundreds of innocent users?
   I hope the answer is no. The fact that my antivirus gong rang 15 times while I was writing this article tells me something else, however. It makes me worried, and it should do the same to you.