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Virus?

Virus?

You Received a Virus From EHSO?

No Way! Our hosting provider uses state of the technology anti-virus protection. We NEVER send out any unsolicited emails or viruses. Here's what is REALLY happening when you receive an email that contains a virus and it SAYS it is from an EHSO address:

From Wired.com at http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,52174,00.html

and http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,52055,00.html

Klez: Don't Believe 'From' Line
By Michelle Delio



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2:00 a.m. April 30, 2002 PDT
Some Internet users have recently received an e-mail message from a dead friend. Others have been subscribed to obscure mailing lists. Some have lost their Internet access after being accused of spamming, and still others have received e-mailed pornography from a priest.

They're actually experiencing some of the stranger side effects of the Klez computer virus.

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These ersatz e-mails containing the virus are creating Klez-provoked arguments and accusations that are now spreading as fast as the worm itself.

The latest variant of the Klez virus started spreading 10 days ago. The virus e-mails itself from infected machines using a bogus "From" address randomly plucked from all e-mail addresses stored on an infected computer's hard drive or network.

Recipients of the virus-laden e-mails, not understanding that the "From" information is virtually always phony -- or even that they have received a virus -- have been clogging networks with angry and confused e-mails that are causing a great deal of cyber-havoc.

People signing up for newsletters and mailing lists that they never subscribed to has been a major source of frustration for both users and the list owners.

If Klez happens to send an e-mail "from" a user to an e-mail list's automatic subscribe address, the list software assumes the e-mail is a valid subscription request and begins sending mail to the user.

A mailing list for fans of the Grammy Award-winning Steely Dan band has posted an explanation directed to those who were subscribed to the list by the virus.

"We are not infected with the Klez virus. We don't know if you are infected with the Klez virus. You may be. But even if you are not, someone out there who is infected has both your address and our address on their computer ... and therein lies the problem," the explanation reads, in part.

Even when users understand the source of newsletter-generated e-mails, the amount of mail some lists generate is causing problems.

"Last week I suddenly started getting hundreds of e-mails, daily, with information about raising tropical fish, purchasing cosmetics and staying in youth hostels," Victor Montez, a sales rep for a publishing firm, said. "I do not keep fish, wear makeup or travel rough."

Montez now understands the e-mails came from Klez-subscribed news lists. But he said that since his free e-mail account only stores a certain amount of messages, he's lost access to the account twice this week. He believes he's also lost a significant amount of business-related e-mails.

"If this keeps up, I may end up having to stay in hostels and I'll have plenty of free time to devote to raising fish," he said.

In some cases, it almost seems as if Klez is specifically targeting particularly vulnerable e-mail addresses onto which it can piggyback.

E-mails containing an invitation to view what purports to be an attachment with pornographic images appears at first glance to have been sent out by Catholic parishes in New York and Maryland. The attachment actually contains the Klez virus, and tracing information indicates the e-mails were actually sent from an Internet service located in the United Arab Emirates.

"While we would obviously never choose to have our churches' names affiliated with such material, this is a particularly difficult time to have e-mail with obscene references -- which appear to have been sent by church staff -- circulating," an archdiocese spokeswoman said, referring to the worldwide sex abuse scandal.

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