important suggestion re ILOVEYOU virus

[Grant Barrett]

On Friday, May 5, 2000, Aaron E. Drews <aaron at LING.ED.AC.UK> wrote:

>>From what  I understand, it's a macro virus.  That is one thing Macs are not
>immune to (speaking from experience).  Macs can quite easily execute
>scripts, which I think is what the love bug is.

The script that the ILOVEYOU message (variably called a worm, virus or trojan horse;
I think the latter is most accurate) executes is written in VisualBasic. It uses
routines and code specific to the Windows platform to make calls to functions in the
Registry that are absolutely Windows-only. It will not affect, Linux, Unix, Macintosh or
Speak and Spell. It also requires an Outlook (not Outlook Express) address book be
present (which you may have even if you use another email program); it does not affect
Mac Outlook or Outlook Express users.

You *do* need to worry if you run an NT server that not only handles mail but acts
as a file server for Windows and Mac clients as both. The trojan horse will corrupt
files on the server (assuming them all to Windows-specific files; just another example
of programmers snubbing the Mac!).

A mail server being jammed by a flood of messages is also a way that a Mac can be
affected, though if it only handles Mac clients, the flood will be incoming rather than
outgoing.

More information can be had here:

http://www.Europe.F-Secure.com/v-descs/love.htm