INFECTION LADEN EMAILS CLOG MAILBOXES
SOBIG is back in a HUGE way.

As readers have no doubt discovered by the amount of mail and attachment in their mailboxes, and old archenemy is back ... the SOBIG Virus.

TECHWEB reports that the new version, Sobig.F, is arriving in e-mail under a subject line that typically says "re:details," "details," "your details," "thank you," or "resume." The sender is disguised as someone that may be familiar to the recipient, such as the name of a company or person.

DO NOT OPEN THE ATTACHMENTS!
According to the TECHWEB report, although there is no danger of deleting files or wiping hard drives, SoBigF's evil lies in the fact that once the attachment containing the virus is opened, steals e-mail addresses from several different locations on the computer, including the Windows address book and Internet cache, then sends copies of itself out to those addresses. The virus, which sends multiple e-mails concurrently, selects addresses randomly for use as the sender, attempting to fool recipients into thinking the e-mail is from a company or other legitimate source.

The attachments' names may include your_document.pif, details.pif, your_details.pif, thank_you.pif, movie0045.pif, document.Fall.pif, application.pif, and document.9446.pif.

It's crap like this that makes E-R want to endorse death penalties for this kind of crap!