Open letter to Anthony Easton

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Perhaps Anthony Easton would care to explain why on Saturday 20 July 2002 he emailed me a computer virus entitled "The Garden of Eden". I'd be interested to hear his response.

― tricyclic_looper, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I've gotten quite a few worms and things from ILX folks that propagate in e-mail programs, and doubtless a few have been sent out under my name as well. There's no conspiracy theory; we all just need to run our anti-virus software more. ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

these things happen all the time, your name can be atached to a virus and you wouldn't even know. I've had viruses from ILE people too, I just assumed a worm virus had attacked their computer and it had got sent on.

This may articulate better what I am trying to say: here

― jel --, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Unfortunately, I cannot share Ned's perspective. I don't know Anthony Easton, I've never an email to him or received an email from him before. There was no message with his email, just an attachment that contained a virus.

― tricyclic_looper, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

yeah, it won't be antony, i've had things purporting to be from people here, i thought josh had sent me one, and one came supposedly from simon reynolds as well!

― gareth, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

tricyclic, thats exactly what i received as well, it won't be anthony.

― gareth, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

anthony's quite a prolific poster on here; some mischief-maker probably picked his name and attached it to a virus like jel said. i'm sure anthony wouldn't do anything like that on purpose!

― katie, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

While we're on the subject, RickyT keeps trying to send me a virus that wants to screw with my non-existent S: drive. What's up with that????? C'mon, Badger-Boy, fess up!

― Dan Perry, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

As Sophos say: "The sender address which appears in the message 'From' field is chosen either from files on the local hard drive or from a list inside the virus"

If someone was maliciously sending a virus, surely they'd change their name?

― jel --, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Nowt to do with me. I keep getting mails from Mark S which have nothing in them yet are 170K long.

― RickyT, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Don't worry Anthony, it probably just picked your address from cached ILE pages on the infected person's computer.

― Graham, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

yeah i've had virus and/or worm bearing emails purporting to be from abt 30 ilxers over the last three months, rarely if ever ppl i've actually had any email correspondence: they're all exactly the same format, eg a vaguely intriguing but also baffling subject, the attached doc containing the worm etc (as i have a mac these seem to be harmless) and NOTHING ELSE (ie no explanation, or message to say hullo). I imagine the "from" address is picked up by a bot trawling ILE or ILM.

― mark s, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

(also ned i haf sent you a mail! virus-free i hope!)

― katie, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I've had these messages from all sorts of people, and I've supposedly 'sent' them too. Apparently it doesn't even mean I have a virus, just that the virus has picked up my email from somewhere (cached pages like Graham says). I'm getting some new anti-virus software today anyway.

― Tom, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

dudes, don't open weirdo emails that are more than 100k, sometimes they don't have attachments, but the virus is embedded. If you get a ton of message undelivered messages, then you could have a virus. Oh, and check to see what .exe files are running!!!

― jel --, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

(Tom's post confused me initially because I'd written something similar to Graham's post, but deleted it in favor of taking on The Badger.)

― Dan Perry, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The strangest thing of all is, in the space of two days, I've received four different emails from four different people, all containing a virus. None of the four people are known to me personally, although I do know of someone who DOES know each of them personally.

Assuming that "The Garden of Eden" email was NOT sent by Anthony, I can only conclude that the same person was responsible for sending the four different emails. Does this scenario sound familiar to anyone?

― tricyclic_looper, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

sounds like that nasty Klez Virus:

Klez Worm, Not Sender, Hates You

― DJ Martian, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

scenario familiar in sense of getting several in one day, but not that "one person is sending them" => i don't know how i'd even check that, klez is all over the place, and it sends itself surely?

if i'm getting so many does that mean i'm also sending them? (i sort of assume not as it's not a mac-attack thing, i'm the end of the chain not the middle)

― mark s, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Bizarrely, the third virus I received (from an address in the Netherlands) contained a message offering immunity from the Klez virus - downloading the supposed anti-virus would have triggered the virus the attachment contained.

― [email protected], Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

yeah, i get that anti-klez one a lot!! i think of it as the ring-leader!!

but the thing is, they're not "from" where they say they are, are they? at the office we got infected by an ordinary email sent to us by one of our contributors complaining we'd infected her... don't they come in snuggled behind emails you DON'T have any reason to notice or look at?

― mark s, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

yep that is done delibrately to try and fool computer users.

Free Anti-Virus software is available @ AVG - Grisoft

― DJ Martian, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, the virus is sending itself - once its got into a group of shared email addresses (eg that its got from cached ILE pages) it just bounces around between them.

― Tom, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

It's well known for viruses to be attached to messages about anti- virus software. I suggest a quick google search on "worms" or "klez".

― jel --, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

How come I never get viruses from you lot? Am I not loved?

― nabisco, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Er, cos yr email is [email protected]

― RickyT, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I never get any either, that's a bit stranger.

― Pete, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Soas have probably got a good spam trap.

― RickyT, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Its called my mouth.

Num num SPAM.

― Pete, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh, Ricky, I'm sure my valid addresses have achieved some penetration of the ILX mailbox world. (And I still get spam, anyway, from having been dumb enough to use my work address on old-ILX.)

― nabisco, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Sending virus love just sounds wrong!

― jel --, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

But but but it's DIGITAL virus love. *cue seventies style guitar riff and Vocoder...*

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

As the Venga Boys would say:

The doctor checked my hard drive
(Cheekah, bow, bow)
A virus in my archive
(Cheekah, bow, bow)
My disc was not protected
(Cheekah, bow, bow)
And now I am infected
(Cheekah, bow, bow)

― jel --, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

It's sometimes worth right clicking and looking at the properties of an email - often it becomes clear that the apparent sender is not even the one whose machine is virused, and it will turn out that the machine that did send it is visible, and you can warn this person that they may have a virus, if only to reduce the possibility of their sending you more.

― Martin Skidmore, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Jel, I'd almost forgotten about that song, and I'm very very glad you reminded me. Just seeing it performed on SMTV and the presenter's worried frowns afterwards....

― Matt, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i have a vrius and nortons wont erase it. i am waiting for an email from customer service, and tried all in my power to shut it down. I am sorry tricylic, i got it from ned. :(

ase

― anthony, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

if I had a nickel...

― Josh, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Hey, I spoke too soon! I just checked my mail and there was a get- rich chain dealie from a Timothy Hopkins. See how random coincidences can make it seem like someone's answering your prayers?

― nabisco, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i got a suspiciously large e-mail from ned today which i did not open.

― di, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

heh heh heh. heh.

― Josh, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i just got a biggie from tracerhand and trashed it. (nothing personal tracer, you and i have never even spoken) btw whats the diff between web based mail and email that i get in outlook?? are the web mail servers, juno in my case, screening these mails for viruses before i even see them or not? and does my pop3 filter thing in my virus soft screen these web mails when i open em or not?? right now pc-cillin is on my computer.

― Ron, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I have caused woe! :-( Assuredly unintentional. *weeps*

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

My experience of viruses is, you can get one in your hotmail and it will infect your outlook. But, you have to open the attachment (usually).

― jel --, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Thanks for all the info about the Klez virus everybody. Don't worry Anthony, I think this thread has alerted people to the danger, so everything should be okay now.

― tricyclic_looper, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

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