[200q20v] Re: FW: Virus warning please read

[Neil Vonhof]

Here is more than you probably want about this HOAX and how to identify
future ones:

This is excerpted from today's edition of the LangaList Plus by Fred Langa
(http://www.langa.com)
1) The "SULFNBK" June 1st Virus Hoax

I've gotten many notes from readers who forwarded a chain letter to me
(usually along with 500 other unlucky recipients) that went something like
this:

     Do you believe that a friend of mine sent me an alert and the
procedure that we have to follow for the possible infection of S U L F N B
K . E X E . And I had checked, just to make sure. An then... the file
     was there, hidden even of McAfee and Norton, maybe waiting something
to start work....

The original recipients of this note checked their systems and were
alarmed when they find S U L F N B K . E X E  there. Well, S U L F N B K .
E X E  file is a normal part of Windows
that's used in managing long file names (the file is usually found in  in
your C:\Windows\Command folder). Antivirus routines don't detect the file
because it's not a virus. The "virus"
warning is a complete hoax.

There is a worm that can arrive as an email attachment named S U L F N B K
. E X E, but that has nothing to do with the current hoax. All the major
AV tools know how to handle that
worm; and by now everyone should know that you should  never, ever----
EVER--- click on any email attachment, no matter what it's named or whom
it's from,  without first at least
running it through an AV scanner. And in any case, the use of the name S U
L F N B K . E X E  is coincidental. The worm could have been called any
Windows file; there's nothing
special about S U L F N B K . E X E.

What's more, virus chain letters are almost always hoaxes: A good rule of
thumb is NEVER to forward any email just because it says "Urgent: Pass
this on to everyone!" or comes
from a buddy. In fact, anytime you get any email with a "pass this on to
everyone!" in it, or a letter that has been forwarded dozens of times,
it's almost always (99.99999% of the time)
a hoax or scam designed solely to generate a chain letter--- that is, to
trick the gullible into perpetrating the hoax.

Don't be taken in! It only takes *literally* a minute to find out about if
any email about:

--supposed virus alerts (even if the email says they're "confirmed by IBM,
Microsoft, AOL and Oracle" or some such)
--pending legislation, including email surcharges and taxes
--sick/dying/missing children who need email or prayers
--body part theft rings
--free vacation giveaways
--free money or products from Bill Gates (or Disney or AOL or Nokia
or....) to those who forward the most emails
--foreign government workers who will pay you to let them move large sums
of money through your bank account
--or any of hundreds of similar chain letters.

These are ALL almost always pure, utter hoaxes and scams.

You can make yourself chain-letter-proof by taking literally about  a
minute to check up on any claims made in chain letters. There are any
number of resources you can use, including:

Symantec Anti Virus Research Center at
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/index.html

McAfee Associates Virus Hoax List at http://vil.mcafee.com/hoax.asp?

Department of Energy Computer Incident Advisory Capability at
http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACHoaxes.html

Debunking online and email hoaxes: http://www.kumite.com/myths/

The Urban Legends Web Site at http://www.urbanlegends.com

Urban Legends Reference Pages at http://www.snopes.com

Datafellows Hoax Warnings at
http://www.Europe.Datafellows.com/news/hoax.htm

ALWAYS take a few seconds to verify the truth of any chain email like
this, and then tell your friends ONLY if it proves true. Otherwise, you're
not doing your friends any favors, and in
fact, you're just helping the hoaxers to waste people's time and
bandwidth.

Additional resources to strengthen your BS detectors:

How To Evaluate Internet Research Sources at
http://www.virtualsalt.com/evalu8it.htm

How To Evaluate Information Sources at
http://www.vuw.ac.nz/~agsmith/evaln/evaln.htm

Hope this isn't too much!
-Neil Vonhof

Charles Baer wrote:

> It's a HOAX, I received an advisory on this today.
>
> SULFNBK.EXE helps recover long filenames, don't delete it.
>
> However!!!  There is a possible related real virus where you
> RECEIVE an attached file named SULFNBK.EXE.  Delete that email.
>
> here's a CW story for anyone interested:
> http://computerworld.com/nlt/1%2C3590%2CNAV47_STO60957_NLTpm%2C00.html
>
> "Martin, Gary G" wrote:
> >
> > Don't know if this is a hoax or not, but we did find it on our PC.
> >
> > Gary
> > 91 200 TQA
> > 94 UrS4
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Nicki Martin [mailto:smilegal12 at home.com]
> > Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2001 7:14 PM
> > To: Martin, Gary G
> > Subject: Fw: Virus warning please read
> >
> ...snip...
> > > > Go to the "START" button.
> > > > Go to "FIND" or "SEARCH"
> > > > Go to "FILES & FOLDERS"
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Make sure the find box is searching the "C:" drive.
> > > > Type in; SULFNBK.EXE
> > > > Begin search.
> > > > If it finds it, highlight it.
> > > > Go to 'File' and delete it.
> > > > Close the Find Dialog box
> > > > Open the Recycle Bin
> > > > Find the file and delete it from the Recycle bin
> > > > You should be safe.
> > > >
> ...snip
>
> --
> Anyone who cannot cope with Mathematics is not fully human. At
> best (he) is a tolerable sub-human who has learned to wear shoes,
> bathe, and not make messes in the house.
>  - Lazarus Long
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