I have been given permission to post the following from the Nebraska Coordinator. To: NEBRRoots-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <3B5E42DD.61AF18FC@midusa.net> Subject: [NEBRRoots] concerns about computer virus Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi everyone, We've been having reports all around the USGenWeb Project of a virus that's making the rounds. It's getting to be very prolific, so I thought I would pass along some tips with Bill's permission. To begin with, if you don't have a good virus scanner on your computer, get one and make sure you keep it updated with the latest data files. If you have one and it's not set to keep an eye on your email, make sure you run it on your computer yourself frequently. On a side note, regularly back up any files that you feel are important, such as your genealogy files. Don't open any attached files that have extensions that you don't recognize, especially anything that has "PIF", "LNK", "BAT", "EXE" or "COM" for the last file extension. You can't tell by the subject line or the sender as to whether the attached file is a virus or not. I've had the latest virus sent me several times today, and they all had the .pif extension.. Some had "script.doc.pif" after the actual file name. The last three letters after the period of any filename are the actual file extension and that's what you need to look at before doing anything. If it's any of the above, delete it, then empty it out of your trash folder. It it was caught by your virus scanner, empty it's recycle bin. Make sure that you have it removed from your computer. If you use any email program that automatically opens all files, make changes to your settings so that it will not open these attachments. That way you will be able to see the name of the file and delete if necessary. If you have been infected, follow the instructions from your virus scanner for removing the virus from your computer. Some of the virus scanner programs have extra instructions that you have to follow in order to completely rid yourself of the virus. Those might involve manually deleting files and/or editing your Windows registry, if you have a PC. Check their website for more information. You cannot get a virus through a Rootsweb mailing list, since attachments are not allowed. That means that html messages are not allowed either, since they come as attachments. Here is a link to a Rootsweb page that has more information: http://helpdesk.rootsweb.com/announce.html#virus Three good virus information sites: http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/index.html http://www.cai.com/virusinfo/ http://vil.mcafee.com/ Before passing along a virus warning that you receive, check one of the above sites to make sure that it is really a virus. There are a lot of hoaxes going around too. If you find that it's a virus, contact the list owner before passing along the information. Info on the latest virus (w32.sircam.worm@mm.html): http://www.cai.com/virusinfo/virusalert.htm#w32.sircam http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.sircam.worm@mm.html Connie Snyder NEGenWeb Project State Coordinator ----------------------- Headers -------------------------------- Return-Path: <NEBRRoots-D-request@rootsweb.com> Received: from rly-xd05.mx.aol.com (rly-xd05.mail.aol.com [172.20.105.170]) by air-xd01.mail.aol.com (v79.27) with ESMTP id MAILINXD16-0725120538; Wed, To: NEBRRoots-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <3B5E42DD.61AF18FC@midusa.net> Subject: [NEBRRoots] concerns about computer virus Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit