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Thursday, February 22, 2001 By David Radin
What were they thinking? Seemingly intelligent people who catch a computer virus because they open an attachment they've been taught not to open.
Last week brought a mighty slam to the net bearing tennis star Anna Kournikova's name -- in the form of a computer virus that spread like wildfire. The virus, embedded in a file called AnnaKournikova.gif.vbs would infect any system on which it was opened, then spread itself through that user's contact list. The file itself is not destructive, but it can clog e-mail systems and create extra work for those who open the virus -- as well as e-mail of friends and associates.
In my company, three people actually opened it and spread the infection to some 200 additional people inside and outside the company. It took only 15 seconds for me to realize that somebody in the company had been snookered; but before I could walk out of my office to warn my crew not to open the file, two more people fell prey. That's how fast it happened. And all three victims are intelligent people.
So how did they get snookered?
Viki received the virus from somebody outside the company from whom she would receive frequent jokes by e-mail. The rest of us received the intruding e-mail message from Viki, because the virus spread through Viki's contact list. Dean and Laurence were on that list and received the message.
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Laurence says Viki has sent him jokes by e-mail in the past. No problem had ever resulted. So he opened it thinking it was a joke. The joke was on him -- and on 180 people in his address list -- many of whom were past guests on my radio show. One previous guest, a consultant, recognized it immediately and sent Laurence a suggestion on how to deal with it now that he has been infected -- information that was not yet available from the anti-virus software companies.
Dean, too, says he has received e-mail humor from Viki. So he was glad to see it. Yet he thought he took precautions. Instead of opening the file immediately, he saved it to disk and scanned it with his anti-virus software, which told him that the file was clean. So he opened it. Unfortunately, his anti-virus software had not yet put the AnnaKournikova virus in its virus definitions. So the file passed a test that it should not have passed. Dean was cautious, yet still got burned. In fact, he says the file name showed up as AnnaKournikova.gif, (a graphic) not AnnaKournikova.gif.vbs (a program -- likely a virus).
Do you see a pattern here? Everybody who got infected was used to passing humor by e-mail. It is easy to hide a virus in a humorous e-mail because (1) you typically get jokes from people you know and trust, (2) the subjects and file names are typically unexpected, and (3) the timing upon which you receive humorous e-mail is inconsistent. It's a perfect virus-breeding environment. So anybody could fake you out by having somebody you trust send you an e-mail with a file name that strikes your fancy at any time -- and you would typically not suspect a problem.
Most people, like Dean, are even more susceptible to viruses because they hide their file extensions in Windows, cloaking the easiest way to identify the virus. I have posted instructions at HYPERLINK "http://www.InsiderRadio.com"--www.InsiderRadio.com -- on how to unhide the extensions so you can better recognize a virus. Plus, Jason Cox and I have posted a permanent anti-virus section to help you avoid viruses when possible and deal with them when necessary.
In most cases, avoiding viruses is not difficult. But you need to think before you open attachments. And use protective procedures habitually. Otherwise, even the smartest people can get taken in.
David Radin is host of the nationally syndicated radio show Internet Insider, a local version of which is aired on KDKA AM 1020 at noon Saturdays. You can ask him a computer or Internet question by following the instructions at www.post-gazette.com/interact, where you also can find an archive of his previous Q&A columns.
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