Hello all, this is Susan E. Bundy, the List Owner I do not want to cause a panic. But to share this information that I have received from the Maryland GenWeb Coordinator and also from the general Rootsweb and GenConnect Boards Coordinators. The worm virus [email protected] was just discovered April 11th of this year. If you have not updated your anti-virus definitions since then, you need to do so. What this bad boy does is reply to all "unread emails" in your email message folders, and passes on the infecting virus in attachments called any of the followings: Pics.ZIP.scr images.pif README.pif New_Napster_Site_DOC.scr news_doc.scr hamster.ZIP.scr YOU_are_FAT!.TXT.pif searchURL.scr Card.pif Me_nude.AVI.pif Sorry_about_yesterday.DOC.pif s3msong.MP3.pif docs.scr Humor.TXT.pif fun.pif If you have tried to open any of these attachments, you are infected and must "disinfect" your system. If you are not comfortable handling this yourself, contact your computer support person right away. Since the worm only responds to unread mail, after waiting 5 minutes, until you are "cured", quickly open or mark all your currently unread mail as having been read. If you have no unread mail, the worm cannot send out ant messages. (Note: This is not a fix. It is only a work around to protect all the folks who contact you by email.) If you receive an email with this attachment, DO NOT OPEN IT. However, please advise the sender that they are infected. Instructions about what to do can be found at: http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/[email protected] Remember: The key is UNREAD messages. It can appear that you are receiving the messages from the list, if the worm is replying to an unread list message. Since NO ATTACHMENTS can be posted to the list, thankfully everyone on the list will not receive the worm carrying emails. However, list members are still vulnerable, by receiving an email from someone that has been infected. The virus is not being sent by Rootsweb or GenConnect, it is being sent by someone on the board/list notices, who unknowingly and unintentionally, has their computer infected. I request that we do not discuss this situation on the List. If you have any questions, please contact me directly and I will try to help you or direct you to someone who can. Please be sure to notify anyone from whom you have received the attachments mention above. That is the only way they can know they are infected, and to share this information with all your fellow emailers. Susan E. Bundy [email protected]