postcard.asp

Viruses and worms
1

I have just recieved an email from a contact on my contact list with the possibility of a new virus going about with the topic “Postcard”.

The threat has been disclosed on http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus.postcard.asp.

I do not know this site, however, the intiator of the email has, at their say-so, checked with Norton, who have supposedly confirmed this virus.

The email I recieved is as follows:

<Hi All, I checked with Norton Anti-Virus, and they are gearing
up for this virus! I just checked with snopes and it is for real.

I checked http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/postcard.asp and it is for real!! Get this E-mail message sent around to your contacts ASAP.

You should be alert during the next few days. Do not open any
message with an attachment entitled ‘POSTCARD,’ regardless of who sent
it to you. It is a virus which opens A POSTCARD IMAGE, which ‘burn s’
the whole hard disc C of your computer. This virus will be received from
someone who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list. This is
the reason why you need to send this e-mail to all your contacts. It
is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and
open it.

If you receive a mail called’ POSTCARD,’ even though sent to
you by a friend, do not open it.! Shut down your computer
immediately.

This is the worst virus announced by CNN. It has been
classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. This virus
was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this
kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard
Disc, where the vital information is kept.

COPY THIS E-MAIL, AND SEND IT TO YOUR FRIENDS. REMEMBER: IF YOU
SEND IT TO THEM, YOU WILL BENEFIT ALL OF US.>

Can Avast comment either in confirmation as to the validity or not of this alledged virus?

2

This is just another social engineering attempt to get the unsuspecting user to click on a link and bingo you could well be in trouble. The web shield provider should provide limited protection against this type of attack (assuming there is a signature for what is at the link).

Never believe what is written in unsolicited emails, certainly declarations that they have checked it out by an AV, etc.

Never open attachments or click links in unsolicited emails even if they supposedly come from a friend/contact it is too easy to forge, check, check, check.

Never forward warning emails, that can really flood email servers, just exercise safe hex in the first place with a healthy dose of common sense. I would also suggest using something like Firefox with the NoScript extension, so any executable payload at any suspect link should be nullified.

There is also the DrWeb link checker, http://online.drweb.com/?url=1 so there are lots of things you can do to keep out of harms way or put obstacles in their way.