Apple Virus Question...

[eleveneastgate]

So my Mom is working with a Mini. She's a computer newbie and sent me an e-mail with an attachment. When I opened it it said:

Scan result: Virus "W32.Beagle.AC@mm" found.

The file attached to this message was infected with a
virus that we were unable to clean. You can not
download this attachment.

Should I be concerned?

If it is a virus, is there symptoms I should be looking for?

I also told my Mom to be careful about openning attachments from Asia...

 

[zach]

Are you on a PC (when receiving that message)?

 

[mad jew]

Whilst this virus will not affect OSX, it will affect Windows. If the virus is on her computer and is somehow attaching itself to outgoing emails, tell her to do a quick search for w32 or something either with Spotlight or the Finder depending on whether she has Tiger. Delete any suspect results.

 

[eleveneastgate]

Whilst this virus will not affect OSX, it will affect Windows. If the virus is on her computer and is somehow attaching itself to outgoing emails, tell her to do a quick search for w32 or something either with Spotlight or the Finder depending on whether she has Tiger. Delete any suspect results.

Thanks M.J., I'll do that ASAP!

Are you on a PC (when receiving that message)?

No, I was on my PB (at work), and she sent it via a Mini (from my Parent's house).

So, it went:

Relatives in Asia --->Mom's Mini --->My PB.

Thanks all for the QUICK reply, I feel a little better ---

 

[mad jew]

My guess is it's the relatives in Asia (probably running Windows) who have the virus and the Macs have just passed it along the line without directly being affected by it. If this is the case, you don't really need to worry about it, but maybe don't forward the email onto a PC user.

It's generally very rare (maybe even impossible) for a virus to self-attach itself to emails when running in OSX so your mum's mini is probably fine.

 

[RacerX]

If I was to venture a guess, I would say that someone with a PC who has your mother's e-mail address in their address book has the virus. These viruses use address spoofing to keep the recipients of the e-mail from contacting the actual person with the infected system.

This most likely has absolutely nothing to do with your mother or her system.

... but it is still very unnerving. I've had this happen to a number of clients, sadly people just don't seem to know about this address spoofing even though it has been part of most viruses for quite some time.

 

[mad jew]

I also told my Mom to be careful about openning attachments from Asia...

Perhaps one of the greatest things about OSX is that she doesn't need to worry about attachments. Windows viruses will not run on a Mac.

I think RacerX is probably onto something here. Ask your mum if she actually even ever sent you a message.

 

[snkTab]

You can not
download this attachment.

your safe

 

[k28]

What's wrong with asia?

What's wrong with asia? i mean, we are on internet world, asia using hotmail as well...belive me nothing wrong with asia ether your relative.

 

[eleveneastgate]

Ask your mum if she actually even ever sent you a message.

Weird that you mentioned that, she didn't!

This thing was sent to me Saturday, MAY14th, and my Mom was out of town...

Hmmm...

 

[Darwin]

Weird that you mentioned that, she didn't!

This thing was sent to me Saturday, MAY14th, and my Mom was out of town...

Hmmm...

It shouldn't be anything to worry about, I got an e-mail which was addressed from my dad, of course it wasn't from him, the address has properly been taken from another machine or something but as she is using a Mac the problem shouldn't be there

 

[Sly]

Leading on from this; when I was running 10.3 I used to run Virex occasionally and 9 times out of 10 it found some viruses once it found 13! These where all PC viruses so I assume dormant on my Mac, but still it was nice to be able to clear them out. With 10.4 Virex does not work, is it possible that I will be passing viruses on to my PC using colleges and customers (Probably the way I get them in the first place?) or will they just sit on my system doing nothing?

 

[ftaok]

If I was to venture a guess, I would say that someone with a PC who has your mother's e-mail address in their address book has the virus. These viruses use address spoofing to keep the recipients of the e-mail from contacting the actual person with the infected system.

This most likely has absolutely nothing to do with your mother or her system.

... but it is still very unnerving. I've had this happen to a number of clients, sadly people just don't seem to know about this address spoofing even though it has been part of most viruses for quite some time.

RacerX wins the prize of being the first to figure this out. Good Call!

 

[plinden]

Leading on from this; when I was running 10.3 I used to run Virex occasionally and 9 times out of 10 it found some viruses once it found 13! These where all PC viruses so I assume dormant on my Mac, but still it was nice to be able to clear them out. With 10.4 Virex does not work, is it possible that I will be passing viruses on to my PC using colleges and customers (Probably the way I get them in the first place?) or will they just sit on my system doing nothing?

Unless they're attached to a file that you forward to your coworkers there'll be no problem. They won't infect any uninfected file on your Mac.

However, even though Macs cannot be infected by PC viruses, forwarding infected files is still one transmission vector people should be aware of. If you're using a Mac within a corporate network, you should run a virus checker.

 

[Balin64]

Simple

As has been suggested but not laid out plainly:

Some owns a PC infected with a virus; it searched the contacts, and sent you an email and made it look like it was from your mom.

Rest assured, as of today, Mac OS X is not affected by such viruses.

Tell your Mum she has nothing to worry about.

This annoys me so much, my co-workers are such morons... every time one of them gets an "email from me" they go ape saying "See, I thought Macs were so secure, and yours just sent me a virus." I stopped explaining: I just say, "Yep, and I will keep sending them until you quit."

Anyway...