My mom just told me about this. There is a virus that's gonna attack like...20 broadband ppl at 3:00...and ppl are trying to find those computers and shut them down before then. But at like 3:00 they're computers are gonna start sending out viruses. So my mom told me not to d/l things from NEbody, and I just wanted to warn you guyz.

Here's the article about that...

LONDON (Aug. 22) - Computer security experts raced to beat the clock on Friday as the super-potent Sobig.F email virus threatened to unleash a crippling barrage of data across the Internet.

A frantic global hunt was under way from the United States to South Korea to find and switch off 20 home computers with high-speed broadband connections that were due to be targeted by hundreds of thousands of computers infected by Sobig.F at 3 p.m. EDT on Friday.

Security experts discovered only late on Thursday that the Sobig.F virus, which has sown panic since Monday by infecting Windows systems and using them to send a deluge of junk mail, was harboring a sinister secret.

Hidden within the virus is an instruction to the infected machines to make contact at 3 p.m. EDT with the 20 computers, which host an unidentified program.

"The problem is we don't know what that program is. It could mean a smiley face dances across your screen or it could be something massive," said Carole Theriault, anti-virus consultant at Sophos Anti-Virus. "It's still under the control of the virus writer."

Even if the mystery program is a harmless gag, the sheer volume of Internet data converging on the 20 computer targets could slow the Internet to a crawl.

The time trigger is set to be activated again at the same time on Sunday, August 24.

The search for the owners of the 20 machines -- to get them to disconnect before the deadline -- has had some success.

"We've taken more than half offline," said Mikko Hypponen, anti-virus research manager at Finland's F-Secure. "But if one is left standing, there will be an attack."

PATCH UP, SHUT DOWN

Security officials have advised computer users who suspect they have the virus to download one of the many patches being distributed by anti-virus vendors such as Sophos (http:www.Sophos.com), Symantec (www.symantec.com) and F-Secure (www.F-secure.com).

Since surfacing late on Monday, Sobig.F has been crippling corporate e-mail networks and filling home users' inboxes with a glut of messages. Hypponen estimated that Sobig.F had generated close to 100 million emails.

Sobig.F spreads when unsuspecting computer users open file attachments in emails that contain such familiar headings as "Thank You!," "Re: Details" or "Re: That Movie."

Once the file is opened, Sobig.F resends itself to scores of email addresses from the infected computer and signs the email using a random name and address from the infected computer's address book.

It has generated a massive flow of potentially infectious emails, bogging down computer servers. Some security experts estimate more than one million computers have been infected worldwide, though they stressed an accurate tally was difficult to measure as so many home computer users had been hit.

Originally posted by Blair_Warner02


A frantic global hunt was under way from the United States to South Korea to find and switch off 20 home computers with high-speed broadband connections that were due to be targeted by hundreds of thousands of computers infected by Sobig.F at 3 p.m. EDT on Friday.







Oh my god......

Ive been getting those emails.

10 more minutes until 3 PM

about 1 minute to 3...

Originally posted by Blair_Warner02
10 more minutes until 3 PM



3 more minutes..

f***!




What if its like a program that transfers to the infected computers to delete all the files or something... Ill start watching around the net... Articles, Computer boards..


Ill try to post here updates that I can find..

OR like the article said, somethin that displays a smiley lol

3 o' clock on my watch

I found a new article...

NEW YORK (Aug. 22) - The fast-spreading computer virus already blamed for slowing or shutting down e-mail systems worldwide was programmed to coordinate a new type of attack, antivirus experts said Friday.

Instructions written into the latest version of the ``Sobig'' virus, which began appearing Tuesday, called for infected Windows machines to try to download a program of unknown function as early as 3 p.m. Friday.

``It could be a game, and all these computers would start playing a game, or it could be a destructive program that immediately deletes files,'' said Mikko Hypponen, manager of antivirus research with F-Secure Corp. in Finland.

Such a program might also attempt to steal passwords or create rogue e-mail servers for spreading junk e-mail, Hypponen said.

He said users should clean their computers using antivirus software - antivirus companies have issued free tools to do so - or turn off machines if they cannot run the disinfecting software.

Users with firewall programs can also block UDP port 8998, which is the Internet opening the virus uses to communicate with the outside world.

The attack was expected to end at 6 p.m., though the virus would try again every Friday and Sunday between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.

Already, Sobig has resulted in e-mail disruptions at several businesses, universities and other institutions. In its early days, Sobig did not physically damage computers, files or critical data, but it tied up computer and networking resources.

Users get the virus when they click on attachments to e-mail carrying such subject lines as ``Details,'' ``Approved'' and ``Thank you!''

One e-mail company, MessageLabs Inc., has declared it the fastest e-mail infection ever.

``It's bad enough that ... a lot of e-mail systems got affected,'' said Chris Belthoff, senior security analyst with Sophos Inc. in Lynnfield, Mass. ``But in the code of the virus itself is a routine.''

The new attack was expected to begin with the virus reaching one of at least 20 computers around the world to obtain information key to continuing. Security officials were working on trying to find those computers and shutting them down.

Internet addresses written into the virus point to those computers being home machines connected through broadband services like cable or DSL, said Chris Rouland, vice president for research and development at Internet Security Systems Inc. It was unlikely the machines' owners knew that they were picked as accomplices, he said.

The Sobig outbreak came just one week after a virus known as ``LovSan'' and ``Blaster'' took advantage of a flaw in the Windows operating system to clog computer networks around the world. The ``Blaster'' outbreak has started to subside, Belthoff said.

Im getting pinged a lot and Zonealarm is blocking em... Before I was getting pinged a lot from one of the viruses... maybe 1-2 times every 10 mins, since 12pm (25 mins) its been 19 pings blocked.. hmm....

I've been getting pinged a lot too. My firewall has been blocking them too.

I was getting many before this from that virus that removes MSBlaster, But now I dunno if its from this SObig.f


http://www.atnewyork.com/news/article.php/3067671

According TO MSNBC all 20 of these computers were shut down in time!



Im praying that this is true....



http://www.msnbc.com/news/955498.asp

and another http://boston.internet.com/news/article.php/3067671

I got one of those emails and deleted it.

Well looks like everything went smoothly, Virus didn't seem to do anything, YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) :) :) :) :) :clap: