V Naughty Computer Virus On The Rampage (now go to your room and stay there).

[Willow2]

Just to let you all know that there is a very nasty computer virus out and about that can get past Norton Anti Virus. It decimated my computer, sent nasty worm emails to various people on my address list and was generally very badly behaved. Have just had to completely wipe my computer clean and reinstall everything - thought I would be ok as had back up disc of documents, but that seems to be blank so am now going to go and put my head in the oven.
But before that, just want to say don't accept email or sweets from strangers, make sure your virus sytems are up to date if you have them and don't open any attachments that you get before virus checking them first.
Damn, just remembered I cook on electricity. Wine it is then.

[MandyD]

Any idea of the name of the virus?

[Tinker]

Willow2 - did it come in an email? What was it called? Had a very strangely titled one today that I deleted pronto (only through bitter experience).

Download grisoft anti virus thing (free on www.grisoft) if you haven't got it already.

[Lizzer]

Thanks Willow2-will be on the lookout - I had a bitter experience with one not many moons ago and I'm not ready to go through the stress of it all again...!

I've got grisoft installed now and it seems to be pretty good, especially as its for free...

[SueDonim]

There is a new virus about. It changes its name whenever it's passed on, so there's nothing specific to look for. You need to be vigilant about anything with an odd 'exe' name. I'm not sure if it's the same one as Willow2 mentions as this one destroys your antivirus software. You should be able to reinstall software so it's more of a nusiance than anything else.

I dunno, some people obviously don't have enough work to do, if they can spend time making mischief like this.

[EmmaM]

Have a look at Symantec website, they give all the virus alerts and information on hoaxes - see www.symantec.co.uk, then go to security responses. If someone tells me about a new virus around this is the place I go to check if its an actual virus or a nasty hoax.

The virus I think you are talking about is called w32.klez.gen@mm, which is a mass-mailing worm that sends itself to all email addresses in Microsoft Outlook. Watch out for attachments that end in .bat, .exe, .pif or .scr.

[Willow2]

No idea what the XXXXXX thing was called - or how it ended up on our machine as had deleted all emails (although had had a couple of odd ones which were blank when I opened them). First sign that something was up was the sound of the hard drive hard at work when it shouldn't have been. Then when we tried to scan for viruses it couldn't find the virus checker, and wouldn't allow us to uninstall/reinstall it. From that point on everything we tried to do failed - all programmes failed and couldn't even create second back up disc. Think it must have been the same one that was in the papers recently as getting past Norton as it certainly got past our version. Sorry can't be more precise.

[Willow2]

Oh yeah, and a hex on all you virus makers. I hope that if you eventually get a life it is a really, really boring one.

[Tinker]

EmmaM - I had the worm that you are describing. Did manage to get rid of it with grisoft though - eventually. Norton was useless. There were 2 parts to it and only one was isolated initially. Had to trawl through all my files on the hard drive to isolate it and then empty my recycle bin. But it seems to have worked. And I know nothing about pc's.

[jodee]

Just as a warning to all, there's another one doing the rounds - W32.BugBear@mm. There was something on the news today about it (I also saw a warning at bbc.co.uk). I have had 3 emails quarantined already today - make sure your anti-virus system is up-to-date or you can download for FREE at www.grisoft.com.

[Fionn]

jodee - Norton picked that one up on our computer today on the weekly virus check and luckily got rid of it ok. It seems to have come through an email that we shouldn't have received.

[Ailsa]

We've had Bugbear this week at work, although it was detected and dealt with, we were told to switch off autopreview in outlook, and that if anyone tries to send us .exe files and self-extrating zip files, they won't get through for the next few days.

[SoupDragon]

Certain Yahoo groups are sending it out too. I've deleted 2 dodgy emails this morning.

[helenmc]

ok..techophobe here - what do you do is you find a suspect e-mail..juts delete or what, and if you've got auto-preview on , is it too late ??

[GillW]

helenmc - when you say "autopreview" I presume you mean in Outlook/Outlook Express? If you have Internet Explorer version 6, then you should be ok if you don't actually open the mail and click on the attachment. The same goes if you have an earlier version of IE but it's been fully patched and updated. To find out if you are up to date, go to the windows update page and follow the instructions. You should install everything which is described as a critical update.

If you see something which is suspect, then if you just delete it without doing anything to it you should then be ok.

If you're still uncertain whether you've got a virus infection, and you don't have an up to date anti virus program (you can get one free from www.grisoft.com) you can check your PC online at housecall.antivirus.com

[Marina]

There is also a free Bugbear fix at Symantec for everyone to use. It is worth downloading it even if you are an up-to-date Norton subscriber because our system was only able to "quarantine" the virus initially, not fix it. The download works fast and is easy to use.

[Clarinet60]

Does anyone know how you delete an email without opening it? When I 'land' on an email to delete it, it automatically opens first.

[SueDonim]

I'm not an expert, Droile,but do you have the preview pane enabled on your comptur? That opens emails automatically. If you turn it off (go to View, Preview Pane) that stops them opening automatically.

[robinw]

message withdrawn

[mears]

We got bugbear virus this weekend. It generated an e-mail from an address I recognised. When I opened it it went into my e-mail addresses and was sent to everyone. Our virus scanner was off at the time because the computer is really slow just now and dh thought he would see if that was the reason, to see if it would be better to get a different one! It can allow access to your internet banking amongst other things. Dh managed to get rid of it but I feel guilty for passing it on inadvertently to others. One friend sent the offending e-mail she received back saying 'what's this all about?'

[GillW]

Mears - don't worry too much about the scare stories re access to your internet banking details - as usual with virus scare stories they're mostly written by journalists with no specific knowledge who picked up on this being the apparent intention of it, rather than actually analysing the level of real risk.

If you realised straight away what had happened and cleaned it up quickly, without going into your internet banking in between times then there isn't any risk to you. The bugbear worm works by using a keylogging program - it CAN NOT tell waht you've done/had on your machine before it was installed. Also it tries to send those details to specific email addresses - which have long since been closed down of course.

[PamT]

We had bugbear last night from a Yahoo group that DH runs. Norton's picked it up without even opening it but the real give away was that it was from someone who isn't even in the group any more. The email that it sent was just one which had been sent around 12 months ago, so it did look quite plausable. It was deleted without even opening the attachment.

[Clarinet60]

Thanks SueDonim, I'll try that

[XAusted]

Help!

Have received an email from bounty.com with an attachment and am scared it might be a virus.

Haven't opened it, think I'll delete it.

However, am thick about computers. If I delete it, it will go to the deleted items folder. How do I get it out of there?

Any advice gratefully received ... TIA