This 'Snopes Okayed ' virus notice may have saved my computer -

[Bobbieo]

The newest virus circulating is the 'UPS Delivery Failure'. You will receive an email from UPS Packet Service along with a packet number. It will say that they were unable to deliver a package sent to you on such and such a date. It then asks you to print out the invoice copy attached. DON'T TRY TO PRINT THIS. IT LAUNCHES THE VIRUS!

It so happens we just had a UPS Delivery Failure. The wrong house number was placed on a medications delivery for my daughter-in-law. It was several days overdue. She happened to see the truck pass by the house, yesterday. She jumped in the car and followed the driver down the street who did have her meds in the vehicle.

We got a notice in the mail today from UPS about the wrong house number and I would have opened up anything pertaining to UPS that would come by e-mail.

Ordinarily, I pay little attention to virus notices but this on really caught my eye. It came at the right time, too.

[Contrary1]

1. The Hallmark "You've received a postcard from ***** is making the rounds again also:

http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/postcard.asp

[Blue_In_AK]

2. I've gotten both of these,

but my virus/spam blocker caught them. Sneaky little devils, aren't they?

[4lbs]

3. My email program disables all attachments that are executable.

Haven't gotten any virii since switching to it.

Mozilla Thunderbird is it's name, by the way.

[silverojo]

6. Web-based e-mail is its name

And it doesn't suck up nearly as much of your hard drive as T'bird does. :)

[Dogmudgeon]

4. Get, and USE, a virus checker. Always.

Keep them updated. Most will check a central server for updates every day.

And if you have a Mac or Linux, do the same -- there is no such thing as a 100% safe system.

There are free virus scanners if you don't have the money to get a commercial program.

--p!

[cliffordu]

5. Odd that us Linux users don't often have to worry about stuff like this,.

If not often means never.....

[lurky]

7. Before you get too cocky, my Ubuntu box @ work was compromised multiple times.

I wouldn't have noticed, but the net admins kept sending me emails about persistent IRC traffic from my computer (botnet, probably). I reinstalled twice, and it kept recurring. Finally, I upgraded to Hardy from Gutsy and it seemed to stop.

[cliffordu]

8. You might want to learn to secure the box.

Your problems are because you have open ports and unsafe programs running that allow root access or your passwords are easy to guess....

All fixable if you take the time to do it.

I don't have ANYTHING running on this machine that allows any traffic not specified by me on a case by case basis - like NO remote logins, no FTP ....No SU from outside....

Of course I'm running a locked down OpenBSD box as a firewall, too.....so....Multiple layers of protection....It can still be cracked but it would take someone so talented that they would be better served by cracking soemthing with money behind it instead of my shitty emails.....

I also read my logs, too...If you see garbage in the /var/log/ files that means you probably got hacked.....

[lurky]

9. Well, that's my point, sort of.

Linux is far superior to other operating systems in terms of security, but you can't just assume you are safe if you're running it. The fact that you are locking down all your ports and sitting behind dedicated firewall attests to this. Saying that Linux people never get viruses can give new users a false sense of security. Especially given some of the really embarrassing lapses in recent months (like this one http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/13/1533212&from=rss ).

Re configuration: I need remote access to my machine, so I open SSH ports. Was I running unsafe software? I guess I must have been, since somebody found an exploit, although I wasn't running anything that didn't come out of an APT repository and I'm good about applying updates.

[superduperfarleft]

10. Odd that those of us who aren't dumb enough to open unsolicited attachments

don't often have to worry about stuff like this, regardless of OS.