Non Train Related but! Nasty Virus can disable your Computer

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Just thought I’d give the heads up as this one’s potentially nasty and hasn’t hit the news yet. Came from Lisa’s work IT Dept.

This is to inform everyone that a new virus has emerged this week of which we all need to be aware and take appropriate action. This virus is especially dangerous because it comes in the form of a Microsoft Word Document, which is a document type most of us see on a daily basis. When the document is opened, it infects your computer, and can also infect files on our network allowing it to spread to all worksite users. It uses a previously undiscovered vulnerability in Word to infect victim computers and as of right now, there is no patch to close the vulnerability. What this means is that as new viruses are developed using this vulnerability, the only defense will be the antivirus companies updating their products.

This problem has two ways it can be mitigated, by patching the vulnerability or by catching the virus that exploits the vulnerability. Usually, we get regular patches from manufacturers that allow us to patch problems before there are any viruses that exploit said problems. In this case, the virus was released onto the internet before anyone knew about it. Therefore, we have only our antivirus software to stop this and any other new threats that are created before the patch is released.

This is why it is extremely important that everyone here and at home make sure that your virus definitions are up to date. Work site antivirus software on Work Site computers is kept up to date by our update server, so as long as you are connecting regularly (every day or so) then you will be receiving the latest virus updates from the server.

Everyone should also be very suspicious of Word documents that you receive for the next few weeks that you were not expecting. If you do receive a Word document that you were not expecting, you should follow up with the sender before opening. If infe

2

Off topic-but worth it. Thank you, Fergie.

3

There’s an even easier step to take to deal with this problem - buy a Mac.[:D]

4

that’s the best solution , but to those who can’t i have only one word

Openoffice

http://www.openoffice.org/

5

It’s only a matter of time…

6

Tks for the info.
Terry[8D]

7

Thanks for the heads up. I’m very leery of any emails from someone I don’t know or haven’t hear of. And usually I already know what they’re sending me. If not, I call them on the phone if it’s suspicious.
One of the most stupid e-mails that goes around is the chain letter. There’ll be some sort of message saying if you break the chain your dog dies, you’ll receive a big dollar coupon or something. We have a couple folks here that fall for it every time.

8

The AVG anti-virus software has a free downloadable version for home users. I’ve been using it for over a year now on my home computers. It is very low-impact, and it automatically updates. I just checked, and they’ve already got this particular virus blocked.

Don’t scratch-build your virus protection. This one is a good RTR.

www.grisoft.com for anyone interested. (And to think I used to pay for Norton…)

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agreed just wish more things worked for mac :frowning: jsut you wate give it few more years mac will come. They already starting to make computer with intel proccesors, it a step to better compatibility