🚀 go-pugleaf

Forwarded:

> Posted on Wired News
> Melissa, Spawned by Spam
> by Leander Kahney and Polly Sprenger
> 
> 3:00 a.m.  30.Mar.99.PST
> The Melissa virus that jammed email networks over the weekend appears to
> have been created when a new computer virus was inadvertently crossed with a
> spam emailer. One expert says it could portend a virulent new approach to
> email marketing.
> The list of porno passwords distributed by the "virus" led to speculation
> that Melissa was a new type of spam. But the porno password list may have
> been distributed only because one of its first victims was a mass emailer
> that targeted Usenet newsgroups.
> 
> "I think it was an accident," said Charles Watkins, president and CEO of
> Windy City, publisher of AllAsians.com, one of the sites featured in the
> virus' list. "I don't believe the person who sent it originally did it
> maliciously."
> 
> Watkins suspects an email spammer posted an infected file to a number of
> sex-oriented Usenet newsgroups on Friday, and the list spread like wildfire.
> 
> The original file appears to have been posted by Sky Roket from an AOL
> account, according to numerous postings on Usenet from users who tracked the
> source down.
> 
> The admitted owner of the AOL Sky Roket account is Scott Steinmetz, a civil
> engineer from Lynwood, Washington, who dabbles in pyrotechnic displays.
> Steinmetz said he's not a programmer, and doesn't use the account for
> anything except Internet access for his family.
> 
> "I really detest the programmers who take part in these kinds of
> activities," Steinmetz said.
> 
> Someone using the Sky Roket name posted a similar virus-infected document to
> pornographic newsgroups in late 1997.
> 
> Sunil Paul, CEO of Bright Light Technologies, an anti-spam service based in
> San Francisco, said it was the first virus he had encountered that spams its
> victims.
> 
> "I doubt it's a new form of spam," Paul said. "But I think someone in the
> future might use something like this to spread product info. They could call
> it viral marketing."
> 
> The Melissa virus, which infects Microsoft Word documents, is spread when an
> infected document is attached to an email message.
> 
> When the attachment is opened, the virus installs itself on a victim's
> computer. Working in conjunction with the email software, it is immediately
> redistributed to the first 50 people found in the victim's email address
> book.
> 
> The virus cleverly labels infected emails with the subject line, "Important
> message from [the victim's name]," which fools most recipients into thinking
> it came from a friend or trusted source.
> 
> The scheme is so effective, the virus has been dubbed one of the fastest
> replicating viruses yet discovered.
> 
--
####    |\^/|     Colin R. Leech     ag414 or crleech@freenet.carleton.ca
#### _|\|   |/|_  Civil engineer by training, transport planner by choice.
#### >         <  Opinions are my own. You may consider them shareware.
####  >_./|\._<   "If you can't return a favour, pass it on." - A.L. Brown