Vivekabarathi Virus hoax is back to do rounds once
again. Security experts at MicroWorld
Technologies have noticed significant traffic
of this email hoax in South Asia and Middle East last
week. The mail goes about bluffing people that a user
by name Vivekabarathi@yahoo.com will try to add them
to Orkut online community and that users shouldn't
accept the invitation as it will give them a deadly
Virus!
This hoax started circulating since October 2005.
It goes on to tell users that a 'very horrible virus'
will crash their hard disk, once the invitation is
accepted. There are some other variants also found
for this hoax, but all of them tell more or less the
same story.
Hoaxes are wrongful and misleading information spread
via emails to create unnecessary panic and fear-psychosis
among net users and general public. A large number
of hoax mails have been about non-existing Viruses,
but even scary mails on the ill effects of substances
like lipsticks and cookies were found to be doing
hysterical rounds, creating urban legends in the process.
There were also hoax mails about the death of leading
Indian film stars Shahrukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai,
which even spilled over to the main stream media.
May be the perpetrators of these mails are doing
it for cheap thrills, but definitely the harm these
mails do is no less than what a Virus does. Such mails
can clog your mailboxes, choke your bandwidth and
spread utterly misleading and harmful information.
In enterprises, this can contribute to a severe dent
in productivity levels.
One such mail in the year 2002, instructed the recipients
of it to search for a file in the computer and if
found, it told users to delete it, as same was a Virus.
Later, it turned out that the file was a Utility of
the Windows Operating system and the result naturally
was not very pleasant.
"In most cases such mails can be easily identified,"
says Sulabh Mahant, Security Expert, MicroWorld Technologies.
"If they use too many bold and capital letters
in the mail, tell you that that the virus will delete
all your files in the computer or that there is no
remedy for this virus, you will need to be suspicious
about the mail."
One telling sign of such mails is a request to send
it to as many people as possible so that you can really
make a positive impact on the society! A hoax mail
about the lead content in Lipstick produced by leading
American cosmetic manufacturers, reported earlier
by MicroWorld, was found to be exhorting users to
take up the cudgels against monstrous, heartless business
houses.
AntiVirus and Content Security solutions eScan
and MailScan
from MicroWorld Technologies
effectively block chain mails and spam from reaching
your mail boxes. Also a reverse DNS check is performed
to see if the connecting IP resolves to a valid domain
name, which ensures the authenticity of the domain
that sends the mail.
"The days when these mails were just about some
harmless prank have long ceased," says Govind
Rammurthy, CEO, MicroWorld
Technologies. "Their impact on the business
and resources of enterprises are significant, with
direct financial consequences. If you encounter mails
like these, please delete them and don't forward them
to your friends and colleagues."
MicroWorld
MicroWorld (www.mwti.net
) is the developer of the world's first Real-Time
Anti-Virus and Content Security software eScan
for desktops and servers. Its communication security
software,
MailScan is the first comprehensive e-mail
scanner for your SMTP/POP3 Mail Server. MicroWorld
Winsock Layer (MWL) is the revolutionary technology
underlying these products, powering them to several
certifications and awards by some of the most prestigious
testing bodies, notable among them being Virus Bulletin,
Checkmark, TUCOWS, Red Hat Ready, and Novell Ready.
Combining their powerful scanner with MWL technology,
MicroWorld solutions provide a Real-Time Proactive
security for your systems. For network security of
enterprises, eConceal Firewall is the latest powerful
offering from MicroWorld.
To learn more, kindly visit http://www.mwti.net.
