I wanted to let you know that the Klez virus that's going around was found on my computer. I hope emails from me didn't infect other computers, but pasted below is information about how to get rid of the virus in case you need it. Please pass this information along to members of the IEC legislative roundtable list and the Rural Advocacy list. Erin Jordahl Director, Iowa Chapter Sierra Club 3839 Merle Hay Road, Suite 280 Des Moines, IA 50310 515-277-8868 [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask] This was sent out by the Clean Water Network. The purpose of this message is to inform/remind people that you have to do more than use virus protection to combat some viruses, including the Klez worm that is now circulating widely. The message has: 1) essential information on how to not get the virus; 2) how to increase your existing electronic virus protection, and 3) instructions on getting rid of the Klez virus if you are infected. 1. FIRST, DO NOT OPEN OR PREVIEW e-mails that appear to be suspicious. You do NOT need to open the attachment to get the Klez virus. Klez virus messages have an attachment and are usually between 90,000 and 130,000 bytes in the size column. Some have forged return addresses from "postmaster@........" The subject line, message bodies, and attachment file names are random. The From address is randomly-chosen from email addresses that the worm finds on the infected computer. Because this worm uses a randomly chosen address that it finds on an infected computer as the "From:" address, numerous cases have been reported in which users of uninfected computers received complaints that they sent an infected message to someone else. The email message that this worms sends is composed of "random" strings. The subject can be one of the following: Undeliverable mail--"[Random word]" Returned mail--"[Random word]" a [Random word] [Random word] game a [Random word] [Random word] tool a [Random word] [Random word] website a [Random word] [Random word] patch [Random word] removal tools how are you let's be friends darling so cool a flash, enjoy it your password honey some questions please try again welcome to my hometown the Garden of Eden introduction on ADSL meeting notice questionnaire congratulations sos! japanese girl VS playboy look,my beautiful girl friend eager to see you spice girls' vocal concert japanese lass' sexy pictures 2. SECOND, Use anti-virus protection but bear in mind that this may not be enough because the virus can easily be altered (reason for all of the above). If you haven't been hit by Klez, it's extremely important that you take the following steps to secure your machine against email-borne viruses. Here's what you should do: 1) Install and run up-to-date virus protection software. 2) Disable or uninstall the Windows Scripting Host 3) Make file extensions visible 4) Disable scripts running from within email messages 5) Run Windows Update to apply all current security fixes. An excellent source for this is OneNW - a resource for environmental organizations. This is a link to how to do all of the above: http://www.onenw.org/bin/page.cfm?pageid=14 3. THIRD, Rid yourself of the virus if caught. Download and run Symantec's free Klez removal tool available from: http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.klez.removal.too l.html (Note that this URL may be too long to display on one line in your e-mail client, in which case you may need to copy and paste it in two pieces into your browser address bar.) Be sure to read the instructions on the page mentioned above for running the tool properly. In particular, you need to run the tool in Windows' "safe mode". The Symantec page mentioned above contains detailed instructions for starting your computer in "safe mode" and using the tool. Print out the page before starting the cleaning procedure so that you can refer to the instructions throughout the entire process.