Don't you wish you had a Mac?

[Robert De Lossa]

A new virus--and quite serious this time for the PC World. Harvard's IT
people sent the message below. A better description of what's what is at
"http://www.symantec.com/press/1999/n990610b.html".

As far as I can tell, this virus is even more serious and destructive than
the ongoing clash o' titans over Emerson's new book.

Robert De Lossa

(Alexander Pope wrote of "damning with faint praise" in his Epistle to
Arbuthnot, while Thumper, in Bambi, reminded us--"If you can't say
something nice, don't say nuthin' at all." That's almost two hundred years
of good advice, n'est-ce pas?)

----------------------------------

To all IT Contacts, Faculty and Staff,

Many of you might have heard of the Worm.ExploreZip virus on the news the
last couple of days. While we have yet to get any reports of sightings at
Harvard, please use caution in the next couple of days. The Worm.ExploreZip
virus spreads like the Melissa virus in that it takes over Microsoft
Outlook Express and uses it to send messages in your name. Even if you do
not use Outlook Express, you are still susceptible to the back end of the
virus, which acts like the CIH virus, attacking registry and boot up systems.

The actual message the virus sends reads as follows:

"Hi (recipient's name)!
I received you e-mail and shall send you a reply ASAP.
Till then, please take a look at the attached ZIP docs.
Bye"

If you receive this message, just delete it with the attachment and you
will not be infected. Still, there may be alterations made to the virus
that would make it different that what is above.

The best ways to avoid the virus:

1. Do not open attachments that you did not request from the senders
(especially .zip and .exe files, which is what the Worm.ExploreZip virus
sends).
2. Viruses are often hidden is those fun little animations that people send
each other, so even if it looks like something innocuous, it still might be
dangerous to open it.
3. Do not use Outlook Express, which always seems to be the target of
Anti-Microsoft virus authors. If you do not use OE, your computer is less
likely to spread the virus.

____________________________________________________
Robert De Lossa
Director of Publications
Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University
1583 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138
617-496-8768; fax. 617-495-8097
reply to: rdelossa at fas.harvard.edu
http://www.sabre.org/huri/