December 2001There is a new "holiday" virus now circulating, which can cause damage to Windows machines. The virus (really a worm) arrives by email with the subject header "Happy New Year" and contains a file attachment entitled "christmas.exe." If the enclosure is opened the computer becomes infected, and the virus sends itself out to addresses from the Outlook Express address book. There is more information on this problem at http://www.sarc.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.reeezak.a@mm.html this Symantec page.
As always, we advise you to obtain and keep up to date a good anti-virus program to keep your machine from becoming infected. Do not open e-mail enclosures unless it is something you are expecting to receive and if it is from someone you know. Because BlitzMail does not automatically open enclosures, it may be a safer email program for you to use than Outlook or Outlook Express.

ValleyNet

58 North Main Street, PO Box 486, White River Junction, VT 05001 Voice 802 359-4162  |  Fax 802 359-4164