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Hi Before the list is flooded with virus queries, I can confirm that there is a new and potentially damaging virus which may affect Win95/98/NT users (as reported in the media this morning). If activated, this file attachment will delete any Word documents, XL spreadsheets, etc. that it can find on your machine. Lovely! For the benefit of new members, it is list policy NOT to send file attachments to the list address. If you have a file of interest to members, please advertise it on the list and ask people to contact you privately for a copy. Better still, make it available for download or view from a web site. If there are files of common interest, I can also make them available on the list web site. Handy hint 1: NEVER run file attchments (especially .exe files!) unless you know exactly what they are. Handy hint 2: Don't wait until your hard drive crashes before you make a secure backup of your life's work. Best Wishes Mark. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% From: Michael Beck <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Subject: New virus alert. Dear all, I have just received a warning about a new virus affecting Windows 95/98 and NT that I thought you should be made aware of. The virus is sent via e-mail, the body of the message reading:- "I received your email and I shall send you a reply ASAP. Till then, take a look at the attached zipped docs." The subject line of the message is not constant as the message is a reply. The atteached file (zipped_files.exe) contains the virus. The attachment displays a Winzip icon, designed to fool users into thinking the file is a self-extracting archive. If this file is executed, users get a faked error message which is a copy of a standard Winzip error:- "Cannot open file: it does not appear to be a valid archive. If this file is part of a ZIP format backup set, insert the last disk of the backup set and try again. Please press F1 for help." The virus then searches for all files with the following extensions and replaces them with 0 block files:- *.c, *.cpp, *.h, *.asm, *.doc, *.xls, *.ppt. The person I received this from (the maintainer of the NT FAQ) was sent this file by someone who works for Dell! Network Associates have further details (and a fix) at the URL:- http://www.mcafee.com/viruses/explorezip/default.asp %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Best Wishes Mark Priestley Disability Research Unit University of Leeds LEEDS LS2 9JT UK Tel: +44 113 2334417/2334418 Fax: +44 113 2334415 E-mail: [log in to unmask] http://www.leeds.ac.uk/sociology/dru/dru.htm %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%