Dealing with Melissa VIRUS
You may have heard about the "Melissa" WORD Macro computer
virus which is all the rage at the moment. It is yet to be seen how big a risk this virus is.
The professional virus industry is making a big fuss and will sell millions of dollars worth
of software as a result.
Melissa comes to you as an
attachment to an email message. It probably comes from somebody
you know - but they will not know they have sent it.
As always there is no danger in receiving the email, only from
opening the attachment.
IF you receive an email with the Subject line:
"Important message from ..."
The message may also say:
"Here is that document you asked for ... don't show anyone else ;-)"
THEN delete the message without opening, viewing or saving the
attached .doc file. Send a message to the person who sent you the
email telling them what you have done.
This virus poses no problems to machines not running
Microsoft WORD 97 or WORD 2000 and Outlook Express, although you may still pass it on to other users.
If you are at risk and get an infection it may mess up some of your
Word documents by adding text from "The Simpsons".
Other defensive action.
If you have used Outlook Express in the past but no longer need it
then delete any address book entries in that program.
In Microsoft Word (versions 7.0a, 97, 2000) ensure that the Macro
checking protection is turned on.
To turn on macro virus protection and other options, perform these
steps:
- Start Word.
- Choose the Tools, Options command, General tab.
- Check the Macro Virus Protection check box.
- Check the Confirm conversions at open check box.
- Choose the Save tab.
- Check the Prompt to save Normal template check box.
- Close the dialog box.
Whenever you open a document that contains macros, the macro
virus protection opens a dialog box telling you that there are macros in
the document and giving you the option to: Open the document with the
macros enabled, open the document without the macros, or cancel the open
operation. You should only open a document with macros enabled if you are
expecting there to be macros on that document and you know what they are
supposed to do.
FOUR RULES OF VIRUS PROTECTION
- DON'T PANIC
- Beware any file sent by someone you don't know.
- Beware any file sent by someone you DO know.
- DON'T PANIC
For more information see the following web sites:
http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-99-04-Melissa-Macro-Virus.html
http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/bulletins/j-037.shtml
http://www.nai.com/services/support/vr/free.asp
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