CATEGORY 4 VIRUS MOVING FAST BE ON HIGH ALERT...
DELETE ANY WITH ATTACHMENTS CONTAINING .bat, .cmd, .exe, .pif, .scr, or .zip !

Dear Internet Friends,

Late last night Microsoft, Symantec and Mc Afee released press statements about a new worm e-mail virus that is a Category 4 "very high risk" and is spreading rapidly. I am sending this e-mail to you to inform about this and ways to avoid catching it.

Important: Update all your anti-viral software throughout the day and daily!

What were doing to help:
GDIS will be performing viral scans throughout the days on our mail server so you may experience slow traffic and some delays with mail delivery. As an added precaution to you we will now begin to block the following .vbs, .bat, .exe, .pif and .scr files attachments. You will not receive any e-mails with those extensions. If you know someone who will be sending you any e-mail with these types of attachments please let us know. You can reach us at our office at 973.736.7687.

Description:
W32.Novarg.A@mm is a mass-mailing worm that arrives as an attachment with the file extension .bat, .cmd, .exe, .pif, .scr, or .zip. When a computer is infected, the worm will set up a backdoor into the system by opening TCP ports 3127 thru 3198. This can potentially allow an attacker to connect to the computer and use it as a proxy to gain access to its network resources. In addition, the backdoor has the ability to download and execute arbitrary files.

Also Known As: W32/Mydoom@MM [McAfee], WORM_MIMAIL.R [Trend]
Type: Worm
Infection Length: 22,528 bytes

Systems Affected: Windows 2000, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP
Systems Not Affected: DOS, Linux, Macintosh, OS/2, UNIX, Windows 3.x

• Turn off and remove unneeded services. By default, many operating systems install auxiliary services that are not critical, such as an FTP server, telnet, and a Web server. These services are avenues of attack. If they are removed, blended threats have less avenues of attack and you have fewer services to maintain through patch updates.
• If a blended threat exploits one or more network services, disable, or block access to, those services until a patch is applied.
• Always keep your patch levels up-to-date, especially on computers that host public services and are accessible through the firewall, such as HTTP, FTP, mail, and DNS services.
• Enforce a password policy. Complex passwords make it difficult to crack password files on compromised computers. This helps to prevent or limit damage when a computer is compromised.
• Configure your email server to block or remove email that contains file attachments that are commonly used to spread viruses, such as .vbs, .bat, .exe, .pif and .scr files.
• Isolate infected computers quickly to prevent further compromising your organization. Perform a forensic analysis and restore the computers using trusted media.
• Train employees not to open attachments unless they are expecting them. Also, do not execute software that is downloaded from the Internet unless it has been scanned for viruses. Simply visiting a compromised Web site can cause infection if certain browser vulnerabilities are not patched.