Re: Please Read Before Opening "Conceptual Focus..."

[Rex Snyder <rgsnyder@MACOL.NET>]

> I received two versions of a post with the title "Conceptual Focus
> on Kinematics".
> My old-fashioned reader gives me some protection from executables.
> I see one of the Phys-L posts contained happy99.exe which I think
> may be a malicious routine.
> Beware or delete unread.
>
> Brian
> brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>
> Altus OK


I'm not surprised.  I have seen two other occurrences of this virus in the
past two weeks.  It is a real problem and you will want to be mindful of not
running the executable file!  Delete it right away and contact the person
who sent it.

Happy99.exe is a malicious excecutable otherwise known as a Trojan Horse.
If you run it, you will see screen splash of fireworks and the words Happy
1999!.  However, the executable installs some files on your hard drive that
do unwanted things.  When you send out an email, the trojan horse follows it
with a mirror image email containing the Happy99.exe trojan horse as an
attachment.  Your unsuspecting recipient will probably run it, further
propagating the problem.  I think it also does some damage to your hard
drive, but don't quote me on this.  For further information, go to the CERT
web page.  CERT stands for Computer Emergency Response Team and is run by
Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh.

CERT Coordination Center:  http://www.cert.org/

Happy99.exe can only affect PC's, not Mac's.  I'm not sure whether Mac users
can propagate it as they can with the Melissa virus.


----------
Rex G Snyder                       rgsnyder@macol.net
St. Paul's School                  rgsnyder@usa.net
Baltimore, MD                      410.821.3031