Warning!

[jseal]

Gentlefolk,

I’m unsure how many of you are aware that there is a bug in the Windows JPEG viewer.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3661678.stm

What this means is that one of the bad guys out there could create a picture which could infect your machine. Microsoft has recommended that you download a patch to fix the vulnerability.

http://www.microsoft.com/security/bulletins/200409_jpeg.mspx

Well, the first pics built with a malicious program which can take control of your Wintel machine have been found on the net.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3701640.stm

I know we at Pixies swap pics about a good bit, so I thought I’d alert you to the situation and suggest that you be even more careful than you already are in accepting unsolicited stuff from people you don’t know. Even pics – particularly JPEGs can whack your machine.

Be careful.

[LixyChick]

TY jseal! May I ask...what happens to ones puter if it's infected? I have a friend who woke up one morning and booted up, and about 23 extra icons suddenly showed up on her desk top. She now freezes up a lot and can't shut down properly and I think there is a mess of other, smaller, symptons. I told her to go to Windows and download any new criticals, but I fear it was closing the barn door after the cows got out!

[jseal]

LixyChick

Once a machine gets infected, you must run a virus scanner to identify and remove the infected files. Each virus writer has his own idea of “fun”, so it is difficult to guess about a particular infection. MilkToast and Belial are a couple of Pixies who are better at this level than I, you may wish to request their aid. Remaining current with MS’s critical patches is a good idea.