Virus Alert 11.23.05

Computer users are advised to disregard, and delete outright, email with the following headers:

SUBJECT: Your IP was logged or You visit illegal websites
FROM: Post@fbi.gov or Mail@fbi.gov or Admin@cia.gov

The body of the email states, "we have logged your IP-address on more than 30 illegal Websites." Said mail has a zipped file attachment which contains the latest variant of the W32/Sober worm. While Trend Micro considers this malware as non-destructive, it has a high distribution potential as it spreads itself via email.

Who are at risk?
Trend Micro OfficeScan users should be safe from this malware. However, unprotected Windows 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP and Server 2003 machines are highly at risk.

What can the user do?
User should never download email attachments especially from dubious sources. While OfficeScan offers protection against worms, trojans and viruses, users may as an extra precaution, scan their hard drives regularly for possible infection.

Computer users that do not have any form of virus protection may download ClamWin, an open source antivirus program, at this URL:

http://mirrors.ateneo.net/software/win32/clamwin/clamwin-0.87.1-setup.exe

A ClamWin configuration guide is available at this site:

http://cng.ateneo.net/clamwin.html

A word of caution
It should be noted, however, that OfficeScan still offers superior protection than ClamWin as the latter has no real-time scanning feature. This means, ClamWin users will have to manually scan a file in order to detect a virus. In contrast, OfficeScan will detect and block a virus before it is even saved into the hard drive of a computer.