FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 9, 2000
Division
of Financial Services, Inc.
Contact: Charlie Taylor
703-409-3559
info@vidnet.org
Vidnet.Org Squashes AOL Password
Stealing Trojan Virus Bug
Attempt at Infection Thwarted, Eradication Procedures Developed
Sterling, Virginia -
February 9, 2000 - Charlie Taylor, President of Financial Services, Inc., on
behalf of it's video conferencing and telecommuting division, WWW.VIDNET.ORG,
announced that at approximately 3:49 PM, yesterday, an attempt was made to
infect one of it's systems with the AOL password stealing trojan virus bug.
Fortunately, Taylor said,
the trojan virus was immediately detected, and the affected system was taken
off line and shut down. However,
identifying the many parts to the trojan virus and developing the eradication procedures
to rid the isolated system of the possible infection took several hours. The security people at AOL were especially
helpful, and I believe they will move quickly to resolve any remaining issues,
Taylor said.
The Vidnet.org video
conferencing and telecommuting website, WWW.VIDNET.ORG, and it's other local
and remote systems were not affected.
Taylor said this trojan
virus is particularly nasty and vicious, because most likely it comes packaged
as a download from an AOL screen name you will recognize, with some friendly
comments.
The way this virus works is
especially insidious, Taylor said. As
near as can be determined at this time,
apparently the trojan virus steals the AOL password and possibly some other information from the
infected machine and sends it to the thief.
The thief then, in turn, uses the stolen screen name and password, and
sends the virus to others, possibly from the AOL Buddy List, or Address Book
under the stolen name, he said.
Taylor said anyone using
AOL is at moderate risk to receive this trojan virus as a downloadable
attachment to what they may think is a
friendly email. Other system users are
at less risk, according to on-line reports, but could become infected.
Internet users, and
especially AOL users should check their computers immediately for any of the
following four files if they suspect infection: mine.zip, mine.exe, uninstallms.exe, or msdos98.exe. This
trojan virus is also known as APStrojan.qa.worm, APStrojan.qa, TROJ_APS.216576,
and APSTrojan.pz.
With the latest update, it
was discovered, a leading anti-virus program could identify, but not could not
remove this bug because it is self replicating. When you delete it, either manually or with the leading
anti-virus program, it automatically creates new copies of itself and installs
the new copies on your system. These
new copies are "hidden" or invisible files on your computer.
The specific procedures
that were developed for removing this virus from a computer running Windows 95,
Windows 95 OSR 2, and Windows 98 will be posted on the WWW.VIDNET.ORG website
as a public service Taylor said.
If this virus is still on
your computer, every time you sign on, your (new) password and possibly other
information will be stolen, he said.
Taylor is better known for
his super sleuth Washington lobbying days, than for his video conferencing and
telecommuting business, and squashing computer virus bugs. "A nasty bug is a nasty bug. We had plenty in Washington. When I see 'em, I squash 'em" he
said. "It's for the public
good."
Get the fix here on the WWW.VIDNET.ORG website.
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