Virus Question
 

Just received an email from a collegue that included the following:


PS FYI OS X virus warning! Up until now no viruses were known to penetrate OS X and spread on the network... we were all so smug, but it was bound to happen sooner or later! This new virus (the only one known to penetrate OS X) is so insidious and infectious that it is beginning to spread like wild fire and there is no know cure except to reformat all your hard drives (and some times that doesn't even work!). For some unknown reason it seams to do a lot more damage to very conscientious users, but less so to the more unscrupulous. Once infected a user can't help but spread it.... here it is:

This is an email virus for Mac OS X. It works on the honor system. Please start deleting random files on your system and forward this message to everyone in your address book.

<<END QUOTE>>

Anyone else hear of this? :confused:

Ha! That's perhaps the funniest thing I've read in a while! Quite creative...

Not sure if your question at the end is serious or not, but in case it is, the virus is just that last paragraph you quoted: basically, "we're asking you to delete a bunch of your own files, randomly, and then send this email to all your contacts. we're going to trust that you'll do this, because really, that's all we can do, since there are no viruses on OS X."

:)

-rob.

[Laugh Uproariously!] :) [/Laugh Uproariously!]

I think were looking at the "do it yourself" type of virus... Even lets you decide what files you delete... How nice :D

How contentious of it! :)

I dunno, the old ones are the best eh? hehe.

Rob.

It would be better if it was signed "S. Ballmer." ;)

Or maybe its a proof of concept virus... Proves the concept that most users are not that litterate... :D

Just wait until Rev.B of this virus, which asks you to forward the email first, just in case your email capability is destroyed in deleting files...

RE: Virus Question
 

I thought you might like that one. :D

Just for the record, variants of this "virus" have been around since at least 2000. See, for example:
http://www.nerdherd.com/hoaxes/antiv...ystemVirus.php

What's even more insidious is that none of the virus tools seem to catch this one.

Speaking of hard to catch stuff... Try out this survey to see how good you are at finding out what email is illegitimate... phishing attempts in this case... I was quite surprised at how good these frauds are getting... Or pass on the link to your users to try and open their eyes a bit...

http://survey.mailfrontier.com/survey/quiztest.html

100 % correct. Go me :)

Well that was easy. All of these things are really obvious, since so far all of the scumbags have poor English skills.

I'd realy like to know if some one thats an admin could get stats for their employes... Here, the average was bellow 30%.. Scary huh ! :D But at least our sole responsability is to inform them about fraud.. Can't do anything if they willingly take risks... Though some have tried to blame us, even if the whole thing happened on their home computer :eek: ... The logic behind that is... It came through my work email, so you guys are responsible... :rolleyes:

I was thinking about sending it out to all my users. I've worked on educating them a lot, so they don't even click on things they think are legit.

Your lcuky... we still have a hard time having people not install tons of junk on their PCs... Strangely though, we have about 25% of our users on Mac and they only account for 5% of the calls and on site support :D Lucky for me I'm pretty much the only Mac guy, so I do have quiet moments :D

I got 50% because I just assume they are ALL bad. I then go directly to the site to see if it is a true offer or account problem. They site things such as good grammar and policy information. All this can be faked as well. I would rather be paranoid of all the emails out there. I trust only those that require no links--that just inform. Think of it, one mistake and you are in for a world of hurt!

Speaking of grammar: At their site they cite things such as grammar, etc.

I'm not trying to pick on schneb. I've just overloaded on bad grammar lately. It seems no one is paying attention to things like their, there, they're or to, too, two or even the difference between then and than. That makes it hard to separate the spoofs, because even the legitimate emails often have errors!
:eek:

I got 80% on the score, only because I though a couple emails were scams that turned out to be legit. But a less savvy and experienced individual would be fooled by many of the phishes-they are getting better, scarily so. Someone who doesn't know to check the website addresses, for example, would be nailed.

schneb does have the right idea in any case, and the site does mention this in every solution, even the legitimate ones... basically, the "Better safe than sorry" expression does apply very well to phishing.