Digital Puppies - virus (worm)
- Subscribe to RSS Feed
- Mark Topic as New
- Mark Topic as Read
- Float this Topic for Current User
- Bookmark
- Subscribe
- Printer Friendly Page
- Plusnet Community
- :
- Forum
- :
- Help with my Plusnet services
- :
- Broadband
- :
- Re: Digital Puppies - virus (worm)
Digital Puppies - virus (worm)
28-08-2007 11:18 PM
- Mark as New
- Bookmark
- Subscribe
- Subscribe to RSS Feed
- Highlight
- Report to Moderator
text of e-mail (which comes without an attachment) is:
Quote Would you consider helping us with your opinion of our new program
Digital Puppies
This beta testing will enable us to fine tune the software for public
release. To say thanks, Beta testers will receive a free copy and 5
years of free updates.
1: Download the software 2: Try it 3: Tell us what you think If you
want to participate, just follow the link to our download site:
xxxxhttp://xx.116.113.120/setup.exe
more details on the PUG (UserGroup) site at http://usergroup.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,5230.0.html .
Regards,
Penny.
Project HappyChild website (free educational resources for kids and schools, plus directory of charities helping children) 1998 onwards
Re: Digital Puppies - virus (worm)
28-08-2007 11:34 PM
- Mark as New
- Bookmark
- Subscribe
- Subscribe to RSS Feed
- Highlight
- Report to Moderator
We Need Beta testers to try out our new software Vegas Casino World
This beta testing will help prepare us for market release. As a beta tester you will receive a free copy of the program and free updates.
1: Download the software 2: Try it 3: Tell us what you think Here is your chance. Follow the link to our secure download center:
http://1XXXX/setup.exe
Enterprise Architect - Network & OSS
Plusnet Technology
Re: Digital Puppies - virus (worm)
29-08-2007 12:07 AM
- Mark as New
- Bookmark
- Subscribe
- Subscribe to RSS Feed
- Highlight
- Report to Moderator
Quote from: dave Yep, I had a similar one this afternoon, looks like another from the Zhelatin/Storm gang
Cheers Dave. Just occurs to me to ask, does PN have something in place to flag up viruses/worms that look like causing a problem?
Only ask because this e-mail made its way into my mail program (OE) having been spam-cleared, and given that most/all mail is in some way filtered now, might perhaps not be too difficult to add a "possible virus" folder option (like the spam folder) into squirrel mail to which any mails containing an .exe link or similar might be diverted.
Does that sound logical / possible?
Regards,
Penny.
Project HappyChild website (free educational resources for kids and schools, plus directory of charities helping children) 1998 onwards
Re: Digital Puppies - virus (worm)
29-08-2007 3:17 PM
- Mark as New
- Bookmark
- Subscribe
- Subscribe to RSS Feed
- Highlight
- Report to Moderator
John
Re: Digital Puppies - virus (worm)
29-08-2007 5:10 PM
- Mark as New
- Bookmark
- Subscribe
- Subscribe to RSS Feed
- Highlight
- Report to Moderator
Enterprise Architect - Network & OSS
Plusnet Technology
Re: Digital Puppies - virus (worm)
29-08-2007 5:34 PM
- Mark as New
- Bookmark
- Subscribe
- Subscribe to RSS Feed
- Highlight
- Report to Moderator
Quote from: dave Best thing to do is forward them to the despam address if they aren't being picked up as spam and it should hopefully learn.
Should I take that as a polite "no" to my question above, about possibly separating out mail that contains .exe links? I appreciate that in certain instances people would be expecting genuine .exe program links but if they were automatically separated off into a designated SquirrelMail folder, would just avoid (any) PN-group customers clicking on worm/virus carrying addresses by accident (and people expecting genuine stuff would know where it would be foldered).
If it's too complicated / not viable, to arrange, fair enough
Regards,
Penny.
Project HappyChild website (free educational resources for kids and schools, plus directory of charities helping children) 1998 onwards
Re: Digital Puppies - virus (worm)
29-08-2007 5:57 PM
- Mark as New
- Bookmark
- Subscribe
- Subscribe to RSS Feed
- Highlight
- Report to Moderator
John
Re: Digital Puppies - virus (worm)
29-08-2007 7:06 PM
- Mark as New
- Bookmark
- Subscribe
- Subscribe to RSS Feed
- Highlight
- Report to Moderator
Quote from: dave Best thing to do is forward them to the despam address if they aren't being picked up as spam and it should hopefully learn. Although given the frequent changes these guys have been doing with their spam these mail probably won't be around long.
Good suggestion - just click the "This is spam" button in webmail. Oh - it isn't there yet - well quite frankly reporting missed spam in the correct format is to much hassle at present so I won't be doing it.
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler) Why I have left Plusnet (warning: long post!) Broadband: Andrews & Arnold Home::1 (FTTC 80/20) Line rental: Pulse 8 Home Line Rental (£14.40/month) Mobile: iD mobile (£4/month) |
Re: Digital Puppies - virus (worm)
29-08-2007 9:10 PM
- Mark as New
- Bookmark
- Subscribe
- Subscribe to RSS Feed
- Highlight
- Report to Moderator
Quote from: Penny
If it's too complicated / not viable, to arrange, fair enough
I'm not sure that it would be possible, at least not easily. Would tagging it with [Suspected dangerous link] in the subject or something be better? Again I don't know how feasible that would be. Plus it's quite easy to disguise the exe. Maybe one to keep an eye on to see if there are more or if it disappears as a tactic.
Enterprise Architect - Network & OSS
Plusnet Technology
Re: Digital Puppies - virus (worm)
29-08-2007 10:12 PM
- Mark as New
- Bookmark
- Subscribe
- Subscribe to RSS Feed
- Highlight
- Report to Moderator
Quote from: jelv
Quote from: dave Best thing to do is forward them to the despam address if they aren't being picked up as spam and it should hopefully learn. Although given the frequent changes these guys have been doing with their spam these mail probably won't be around long.
Good suggestion - just click the "This is spam" button in webmail. Oh - it isn't there yet - well quite frankly reporting missed spam in the correct format is to much hassle at present so I won't be doing it.
I agree that forwarding the spam is a hassle, but mostly I've stopped doing it, because when I do, the amount of spam I get goes up!!
I suspect it's to do with the fact that to forward it, you have to open it.
John
Re: Digital Puppies - virus (worm)
29-08-2007 10:40 PM
- Mark as New
- Bookmark
- Subscribe
- Subscribe to RSS Feed
- Highlight
- Report to Moderator
Quote from: dave Would tagging it with [Suspected dangerous link] in the subject or something be better? Again I don't know how feasible that would be. Plus it's quite easy to disguise the exe. Maybe one to keep an eye on to see if there are more or if it disappears as a tactic.
Sounds reasonable I assume most people nowadays know to leave the preview pane closed so mail doesn't open automatically, and to be wary of attachments, but a link to click, one that's openly an .exe link, or worse a disguised one, is another matter.
Presumably the existing pre-arrival spam-scan software reads the source code not just what's "visible".
Worst-case-scenario would be a spoofed PN-send address (given the original webmail hack to get PN-group addresses en masse was done deliberately) with such a link in the body of the e-mail, because most customers would click if it looked interesting and supposedly originated from PN. Highly unlikely ever to happen, of course, but not beyond the bounds of possibility.
I guess I'd feel more comfortable if exe-link-type e-mails were hived off somewhere (for access only if required) - even if it stops only one in a hundred customers getting a virus/worm, that's still 2000 people, in the final analysis, and that many computers with viruses could perhaps cause a load on PN's e-mail servers.
All hypothetical and no doubt very unlikely, but maybe, as you say, worth keeping an eye on ongoing tactics being used.
Regards,
Penny.
Project HappyChild website (free educational resources for kids and schools, plus directory of charities helping children) 1998 onwards
Re: Digital Puppies - virus (worm)
29-08-2007 11:19 PM
- Mark as New
- Bookmark
- Subscribe
- Subscribe to RSS Feed
- Highlight
- Report to Moderator
Enterprise Architect - Network & OSS
Plusnet Technology
Re: Digital Puppies - virus (worm)
30-08-2007 2:37 AM
- Mark as New
- Bookmark
- Subscribe
- Subscribe to RSS Feed
- Highlight
- Report to Moderator
Quote from: dave It's actually already been done, I remember a virus about a year or two ago ... so mails to PlusNet customers looked to come from support@plus.com ...
oh joy
... just occurs to me how easy it would be, for someone with a grudge and a little bit of knowledge of how things work here, to create a (masked) .exe type link for a trojan/virus, and include the link in an e-mail supposedly from PN billing, or even this forum, anything that a customer might be likely to read and click through from, without checking first where the link actually went.
... have there been any developments on finding out exactly who hacked the webmail database, btw?
Project HappyChild website (free educational resources for kids and schools, plus directory of charities helping children) 1998 onwards
Re: Digital Puppies - virus (worm)
30-08-2007 10:53 PM
- Mark as New
- Bookmark
- Subscribe
- Subscribe to RSS Feed
- Highlight
- Report to Moderator
Quote from: PJ See here for article on the group apparently behind the e-mails reported by the OP.
Interesting. Probably the same people as were behind the YouTube attack on 28th August.
Google must be teed off about their Blogger site being targeted; surprised it happened there, tbh.
I guess PN is small fry by comparison, but it's worrying that the webmail database was deliberately hacked and it would be reassuring to know that some thought was being given to ways of protecting PN-customers should the hacked addresses in due course become a target for mass e-mails carrying the .exe type links, masked or otherwise.
Regards,
Penny.
Project HappyChild website (free educational resources for kids and schools, plus directory of charities helping children) 1998 onwards
Re: Digital Puppies - virus (worm)
02-09-2007 9:34 AM
- Mark as New
- Bookmark
- Subscribe
- Subscribe to RSS Feed
- Highlight
- Report to Moderator
Edit just realised that unless you click on a message
It won't open sorry its been a long night.
- Subscribe to RSS Feed
- Mark Topic as New
- Mark Topic as Read
- Float this Topic for Current User
- Bookmark
- Subscribe
- Printer Friendly Page
- Plusnet Community
- :
- Forum
- :
- Help with my Plusnet services
- :
- Broadband
- :
- Re: Digital Puppies - virus (worm)