We just got a virus entitled I LOVE YOU here at work, it spread like wildfire, sending to anyone you have emailed in the past couple of days. Just a heads up, I don’t know if I have emailed any dopers lately from my work address, and I’m sure it’s gonna make its way around.
But you know, I really DO love you guys.
Affirmative. Several large corporations in The Netherlands have had their networks wiped out today. This is some serious shit. Whatever you do, don’t open the attachment, throw the message away and notify your system administrator.
It got us too…goes down the list alphabetically sending it to everyone in the Company. We’ve had to pull down our email server. It is very serious.
Thanks for letting us know, psycat. I just heard about this one on the way in to work and was going to post a message about it myself.
Even if you don’t open the attachment and only open the email, it floods the server, sending emails to thousands of people and could potentially shut it down.
This is serious stuff! I work at a University and we are all hit hard. I received the message but didn’t even open the message and it started sending mail to everyone in my address book. I cut the power on my PC and everything seems to be running okay so far. I heard rumor that it’s an Outlook mail problem, but don’t hold that against me.
psy,
Thanks so much for your information. Since I am consultant, I have to keep up on these things.
I sent out a letter to all the employees at my client’s office.
Thank you, thank you, thank you…and what a drag for you!
Our email is currently shut down because of this. What a huge pain. We use Outlook too. ::sigh:: I wonder if everybody’s going to get an email from me now? Yeesh, how embarassing. Here’s a story on it: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000504/ts/tech_virus_1.html
If you open the e-mail and/or the attachment, it automatically sends itself to everyone in your address book, both personal and company-internal. Then it gets sent to everyone in those persons’ address books. So don’t open the damn thing!
We got a few of those e-mails too, but most of our users have good old-fashioned text based Unix e-mail and are therefore generally immune these type of viruses.
The text of the virus includes the profound statement, “I hate go to school.” Lovely.
Yep, it got us too.
There’s one point for Novell - I’ve yet to encounter an email virus written specifically for Groupwise. We’re okay today 
Ford Motor Company is fried, heard from a tech friend there warning me not to open any mail I get from her Ford account (she sent the warning from an Internet account).
I heard about it on NPR on the way to work and it had already been spread by co-workers before I got in. Fortunately I use the Netscape client for my personal mail which seems to be exploited less than µsoft products.
A few tips.
1)dont open the attachment (well, duh)
2) It specifically targets MSoutlook address books, so be careful
3)If you use a preview pane, disable it, this can also trigger the virtus.
if your system does contract the virus, dont run Antivirus software, as this will also trigger the virus.
It was written by someone from the phillipines…
Our network just got taken out, too. And after we all got the warning not to open the iloveyou email. Hard to say what’s going to happen next, but I am free to surf the Intrynet! Woo hoo!
Such a concerned employee, am I.
For the Symantec, makers of Norton Antivirus, write up on this, try the following link:
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/vbs.loveletter.a.html
I use the word “try,” because they are so swamped this morning that it is very tough getting to it.
:: sigh :: it’s spread to government systems too. our Outlook is down, with rumors it may not be up until tomorrow. gotta love it–the Helpdesk is relaying updates on the situation by posting notes at the elevator banks in our building.
The warning I got said it not only sends itself to everyone on the address book but also overwrites all JPG, JPEG, MP3
and MP2 files.
Our email here at the Mayo Clinic is down as well…damn, this blows.
Does anybody know the deal with Symantec. In the news reports they say “Anti-virus firm Symantec said it had already released an update to its software to combat the virus, but warned computer users not to open any ``I love you’’ messages.” But the virus definition is not on my computer (and I get the updates regularly). Plus when I go to symantec’s site they say “Virus Definitions for VBS.LoveLetter.A pending.”
Huh?
But, ILOVEYOU!
That’s right, each and every one of you. C’mere and get a hug, damnit! {{{{{{hug}}}}}}