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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill Fischofer who wrote (63442)	11/27/2001 12:04:02 PM
From: Charles Tutt	Respond to of 74651

I put it at least even with a self serving statement by an IBM employee. JMHO. Charles Tutt (TM)

To: Bill Fischofer who wrote (63442)	11/27/2001 4:30:53 PM
From: alydar	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

would'nt it be nice to have your outlook mail spread to strangers all over the world? Internet worm that tracks typing still spreading SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 27 (Reuters) - An Internet worm that leaves infected computers vulnerable to hacking by tracking what is typed - including passwords and credit-card details - appears to have peaked, but is still spreading through users who have not updated their antivirus software, experts said on Tuesday. United Kingdom-based MessageLabs estimated the number of "Badtrans" infections at 16,000 to 18,000 globally on Monday and about 16,000 on Tuesday, more than 600 an hour. The worm, first detected in Britain last Friday, has spread in Europe, particularly England and Germany, and in North and South America, but does not seem to be doing much damage in Asia, experts said. Uruguay antivirus company Videosoft reported receiving nearly 20 infected messages in six hours, which it said was a high tally for a single virus. In the four days since it began spreading, the Badtrans worm has surpassed SirCam in number of infections for all of November, antivirus companies reported. Mostly home and small business computer users are affected, with most large companies blocking the worm at the e-mail gateway. "It's still a great problem, not just because of the security vulnerability it could exploit, but also because users just aren't learning" safe e-mail and antivirus practices, said Andy Faris, president of MessageLabs Americas, based in Minneapolis. Badtrans spreads through Microsoft Corp. <MSFT.O> Outlook or Outlook Express e-mail programs, automatically sending itself to unanswered e-mails and installing a keystroke logger on the infected machine that can record everything someone types, including passwords and credit card information. Unlike most worms, which are self-propagating computer viruses, Badtrans does not require someone to click on and open up the attachment to infect the machine. Just reading or previewing the e-mail executes the worm, experts said. The worm makes a record of the keystrokes and sends it off periodically to one of about 20 e-mail addresses, some of which are no longer in use, experts said. Vincent Weafer, director of Network Associates Inc.'s <NETA.O> antivirus research center, predicted the worm will spread for a few more days while home and small business computer users update their antivirus software. "People traditionally think viruses are reparable, but when it comes to data export, loss of privacy and confidentiality, and reputation loss, that's much scarier," Weafer said. "That's not recoverable. Certainly the stakes are much higher." 15:34 11-27-01 Copyright 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.