WARNING: a virus which opens A POSTCARD IMAGE

[Fully]

Hi All,
I checked with Norton Anti-Virus, and they are gearing up for this virus!
I checked Snopes (URL above:), and it is for real!!
Get this E-mail message sent around to your contacts ASAP.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS!

You should be alert during the next few days. Do not open any message with an attachment entitled 'POSTCARD FROM HALLMARK,' regardless of who sent it to you.

It is a virus which opens A POSTCARD IMAGE, which 'burns' the whole hard disc C of your computer.

This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list.

This is the reason why you need to send this e-mail to all your contacts It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it.

If you receive a mail called' POSTCARD,' even though sent to you by a friend, do not open it! Shut down your computer immediately.

This is the worst virus announced by CNN. It has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever

This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus.

This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept.

[bradc]

Seen it on two customers sites now. On both occasions the data on the machine was ok, all that was required was a reboot into safe mode and deletion of the file, problem fixed.

[Wodjno]

http://www.hoax-slayer.com/postcard-virus-hoax.shtml

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_postcard_virus.htm

[bradc]

the one on my customers machines sure as hell weren't hoax's. It probably was a hoax that someone with a sense of humour has decided to make real.

[Fully]

Oh really.
I don't really need to worry about it anyway, I don't use antivirus, as I use a real O/S :)

[Turbo_Steve]

The OS has nothing to do with it: It's been proven that code injections can be run at a CPU level, bypassing the OS completely, though there isn't an AntiVirus defence against this as yet.
So if you've got an Intel or compatible chip, you're still vulnerable.

Brad, is it possible the Virus that did the damage you encountered wasn't the POSTCARD virus, but something else?
I'm in technology too, and I've found that frequently a problem will be attributed to "the last thing I heard about and understood which correlated with my personal experience".

So, for example, they've seen the Hoax mail, had a virus break their computer and put 2+2 together to make 4.259867341E+10*4?

[pitslayer]

The OS has nothing to do with it: It's been proven that code injections can be run at a CPU level, bypassing the OS completely, though there isn't an AntiVirus defence against this as yet.
So if you've got an Intel or compatible chip, you're still vulnerable.

Brad, is it possible the Virus that did the damage you encountered wasn't the POSTCARD virus, but something else?
I'm in technology too, and I've found that frequently a problem will be attributed to "the last thing I heard about and understood which correlated with my personal experience".

So, for example, they've seen the Hoax mail, had a virus break their computer and put 2+2 together to make 4.259867341E+10*4?
you mean 57.039469364E?

[Beastlee]

Fully, perhaps you could edit your first post to show that what you posted is actually the content of the message, not that you personally checked Norton, etc....

I too work in IT and support all North Western Europe's UK bases and it's so frustrating to see these going around.

If there's a new virus out there your antivirus updates will normally have been updated quick enough to protect and if it's not quick enough it's time to get a better one.

If anyone is looking for an excellent one that's free go to http://www.avast.com and get the free Home version. I've not had a single customer get infected after installing it.

[Nick VR4]

Well I have not heard much on the grape vine regarding this

The only newish McAfee Malware was to do with Facebook and not a postcard

ISC did mention a malware with a chance to get your "airplane ticket", you currently have a second opportunity. Emails are making the rounds that claim to come from CNN, and carry a subject of "CNN.com Daily Top 10". Well, they are neither. But the emails contain click-friendly headlines with enticing subjects like "Will all Americans be obese by 2030?" Now who wouldn't want to read THAT?!Clicking takes you to the netherworld, of course. You currently receive a file called "get_flash_update.exe" (yeah, sure!). Detection for the sample is coming on line

Simple answer is DONT OPEN EMAIL IF YOU NOT SURE and definitely DONT CLICK ON LINKS in emails

[Fully]

Fully, perhaps you could edit your first post to show that what you posted is actually the content of the message, not that you personally checked Norton, etc....

I too work in IT and support all North Western Europe's UK bases and it's so frustrating to see these going around.

If there's a new virus out there your antivirus updates will normally have been updated quick enough to protect and if it's not quick enough it's time to get a better one.

If anyone is looking for an excellent one that's free go to http://www.avast.com and get the free Home version. I've not had a single customer get infected after installing it.

That is the message dude :)



from xxxxx
to xxxxxx
date Wed, Aug 6, 2008 at 10:50 AM
subject FW: Please Read - From Scrapbooking Sue
mailed-by xtra.co.nz

hide details Aug 6 (2 days ago)


Reply



Hi All,
I checked with Norton Anti-Virus, and they are gearing up for this virus!
I checked Snopes (URL above:), and it is for real!!
Get this E-mail message sent around to your contacts ASAP.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS!

You should be alert during the next few days. Do not open any message with an attachment entitled 'POSTCARD FROM HALLMARK,' regardless of who sent it to you.

It is a virus which opens A POSTCARD IMAGE, which 'burns' the whole hard disc C of your computer.

This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list.

This is the reason why you need to send this e-mail to all your contacts It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it.

If you receive a mail called' POSTCARD,' even though sent to you by a friend, do not open it! Shut down your computer immediately.

This is the worst virus announced by CNN. It has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever

This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus.

This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept.

COPY THIS E-MAIL, AND SEND IT TO YOUR FRIENDS. REMEMBER: IF YOU SEND IT TO THEM, YOU WILL BENEFIT ALL OF US

================================================== =============

WARNING

This message may contain information that is confidential and may be subject to the provisions of section 61A of the Police Act 1958, which creates an offence to have unlawful possession of Police documents. If you are not the intended recipient of this message or have received this message in error, you must not peruse, use, pass or copy this message or any of its contents.

Also note, the views expressed in this message may not necessarily reflect those of the New Zealand Police.




Well from my experence I have never had a virus on any of my computers in the last 10yrs, Even my 486 dx2 was running corel (tell a lie, I had notepad when I emulated wins about 8 yrs ago) I run linux o/s with no antivirus, then people all around me that run windows get them all the time.

My partner had 2 virus on her windows pc in the last 12 months, now that she is running linux Ubuntu 8.x she has not had any proplems.