Announcements

I'm Sooooo Sick Of Viruses!

That annoying Klez virus is still running rampant in mailboxes across the net. In fact, it's made me decide to run an updated version of my Virus Guide as a three part series this week in the newsletter. My goal is to give you the basics of how a virus attacks and, more importantly, how to avoid them.

However, I want to update you on the epidemic with the Klez virus. We're still seeing them in record numbers. In fact, I'm very confident in saying that this is the worst virus outbreak I've ever seen.

Now, as you probably already know, this virus sends itself to every e-mail address it can find in your computer, it compromises your personal information, attempts to disable your anti-virus software, and can easily spread itself across networked computers.

OK, here's another piece of information you may be interested in. When this little nasty sends itself out to all the addresses in your computer, it randomly picks an address from your address book and uses that information as the "From" part of the e-mail.

What does that mean? Norton gives an excellent explanation on their website:

" Because this worm uses a randomly chosen address that it finds on an infected computer as the "From:" address, numerous cases have been reported in which users of uninfected computers received complaints that they sent an infected message to someone else.

For example, Linda Anderson is using a computer that is infected with W32.Klez.H@mm. Linda is not using an antivirus program or does not have current virus definitions. When W32.Klez.H@mm performs its emailing routine, it finds the email address of Harold Logan. It inserts Harold's email address into the "From:" portion of an infected message that it then sends to Janet Bishop. Janet then contacts Harold and complains that he sent her an infected message, but when Harold scans his computer, Norton AntiVirus does not find anything--as would be expected--because his computer is not infected. "

More -
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.klez.h@mm.html

We have witnessed this firsthand here at WorldStart. As you know, our e-mail addresses are in tens of thousands of address books. Every now and then over the last week or two, we've had people tell us that we were sending them viruses. When we looked at the headers of the e-mails in question, it was clear that they did not originate from us, they were just using our address information. (And no, we are not, nor ever were, infected).

This type of thing is happening across the board to everyone out there (companies, individuals, etc). So, if someone claims you're sending out viruses, check your computer (just to be safe :-) and tell them how this virus works. You may not be, but yours was the randomly chosen address for the person who was infected.

So, it goes back to the old rule - never open e-mail attachments unless you know they are safe, even if it looks like it's from someone you know. You can look at the e-mail, just don't run any attached files.

Of course, if you don't have Anti-virus protection, this should be reason enough to get it. If you were to accidentally get infected, it's your friends who get the grief for it, not you.

We still have Norton Anti-virus 2002 for only $18.97 (retail is $49.95). It's automatic update feature updated the software as soon as this thing came out and it has caught each and every virus that tries to get into our system. In my opinion, it's crazy not to protect yourself - and your friends.

Here's the link for more info. Please, if you don't have anti-virus software (or need new) order this today. The rest of the internet and I thank you :-)

http://www.worldstart.com/store/nortonav2002.htm

And Also -

We had a special on Friday that was huge. We had the World Book Multimedia Encyclopedia 2002 for just $12.97! Retail is $29.95, so you save nearly $17.00 on this current title!

Bonus - Buy this program between now and Monday (May 13th, 2002) and get 3D Jongg for FREE! ($19.95 retail value)

The encyclopedia features thousands of articles, video, audio, photos, maps, charts, and tons of research help. It's one of the best out there and a personal favorite of mine.

If you missed out, there's still time to grab this excellent title with the FREE 3D Jongg game. Again, after today (Monday, May 13th, 2002), you don't get the free game.

http://www.worldstart.com/store/worldbook2002.htm

Computers 101

Q:
What is a virus and why do people make them?

A:
A virus is an unwanted program that, in almost all cases, the user accidentally installs onto his or her computer. Some are relatively harmless and cause little, if any, damage. Some are much more hazardous and can render the information on your computer's hard drive useless. Most just like to try to share your information, crash your computer, and spread themselves around.

So why do people make viruses?

Well, some (maybe most) do it just to see if they *can* do it. Some are genuinely looking to cause havoc. Others, and these are the ones to watch, are trying to get personal information from you. Many of the viruses out there are used to send their creator information from your computer via e-mail. Sure, there are more than just those 3 reasons, but I believe those to be the primary ones.

Have a question for the newsletter? Submit it at the link below:
http://www.worldstart.com/submitquestion.htm

Tip of the Day

Viruses - Part 1 of 3

Since most of the viruses that give people trouble tend to be in the form of e-mail viruses, I'm going to give you the low down on how most of these puppies work with our computer buddy, "Jim".

Let's say Jim goes to work and checks his e-mail like he always does. He notices an e-mail from someone he knows with an attachment. The e-mail says something generic like "Hey, check out this attachment, it's really cool".

In all likelihood, there will be no signature (although there could be).

So, old Jim clicks the little paperclip icon and runs the attachment. It probably ends in ".exe" or ".zip".

Maybe he gets a cute little display on his screen (the Happy99 virus gave the user a fireworks display). Jim thinks "Hmm, that was cool" and gets back to work, completely unaware that he has been infected.

Now the virus goes to work. The first thing it will probably do is get into his address book and send itself to everyone in it. When these people get the e-mail virus, it looks like their friend Jim has just sent them a cool little file to check out. Old Jim doesn't have a clue that this has even transpired but now all his friends are opening up this little file and infecting their own computers (and sending it out to everyone in their address books). Do you see how these things can infect millions of computers in a hurry?

Another route the virus can take is to send a second e-mail with itself attached to anyone you are sending a message to. For instance, say you send Jim a message. Jim checks his e-mail and sees your message plus another message from the virus that you didn't even know you sent.

A quick way to check and see if you are infected with this type of "piggy back" virus is to send yourself an e-mail. If you get a second e-mail with an attachment, you're infected (note - this only works for viruses that spread themselves as described above).

Another way these e-mail themselves is by choosing an address from your address book as the "from" person (The Klez virus does this). So, it looks like one of Jim's friends is sending out viruses form their computer, but it's really coming from his machine.

Jim's friend then gets lots of e-mail from people telling him that he's sending out viruses! Of course, he's not, but Jim is. (In addition, Jim may get an earful from this (now former) friend once he figures out what happened!)

OK, I now what you may be thinking. Maybe you have 500 people in your address book and it seems like you would notice that there was an excessive amount of e-mail going out when you send / receive.

Well, you may with some viruses, but the smarter ones have an "SMTP" engine built in. Simply put, they can send e-mail from your computer without using your e-mail software or server. This is done is the background and may seem like nothing more than a sluggish internet connection.

Sneaky, aren't they?

That's how most e-mail viruses work. Tomorrow, we'll look at how to "outsmart" them.

Have a tip for the newsletter? Submit it below:
http://www.worldstart.com/submitatip.htm

Amanda's Cool Site of the Day

Bad Astronomy

Welcome to Bad Astronomy, a site “devoted to airing out myths and misconceptions in astronomy and related topics.” Ever wondered about the Aurora Borealis? What causes it? Take a look here -

http://www.badastronomy.com/mad/1996/aurora.html

How about the coriolis factor in your toilet? You know, which way the water spins in your toilet according to what hemisphere of the earth you are in. It’s debunked here-

http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/coriolis.html

You can find tons of fabulous scientific knowledge here. So go take a gander, put some questions to rest. There’s even a bulletin board for you to post questions on – if you think of something you’ve always wondered about. Have fun.

http://www.badastronomy.com/

Do you have a cool site that you want to share? Send it to Amanda!! Here's the address:

amanda@worldstart.com

Oh, and we're looking for non-commercial sites. We generally don't run sites that are strictly for shopping.