+> If you download, some one from the internet will get your screen
+> name and password! Please send this to any names you can think of and
+> remember never download BUDDYLST.ZIP. This is a new, very malicious
+> virus and not many people know about it. This information was
+> announced yesterday morning from Microsoft. Please share it with
+> everyone that might access the internet.
I suspect that the file is perfectly harmless if it remains as a zip
archive, and will only cause problems if you either unzip, or run the
program. There was a similar case recently when some of the zip files for
the demo of "Sin" (an upcoming computer game) were somehow infected with a
virus, so it's not unusual.
The best solution to this problem is to install a decent virus checker
on your machine, and keep it up to date.
+> Once again, pass this along to EVERYONE in your address book so that
+> this may be stopped. Also do not open or even look at any mail that
+> says "RETURNED OR UNABLE TO DELIVER." This virus will attach itself
+> to your computer components and render them useless. Immediately
+> delete any mail items that say this. AOL has said that this is a
+> very dangerous virus and that there is NO remedy for it at this time.
+> Please practice cautionary measures and forward this to all your
+> on-line friends ASAP. Hope this does not get you!
I'm not sure if this is a real virus - there's been a similar thing
going around the Net for years called the "Good Times Virus", which warns of
dire consequences if you opened a piece of mail containing the subject "Good
Times". The trouble facing this kind of virus is that mail browsers are
generally pretty simple programs that only examine text (or HTML) documents.
If you try to send someone a program's executable by tagging it onto a mail
message, then you'll have some kind of reference to it in either the
message's body, or in the mail browser itself. The only way to run the
program is to explicitly do so, and some mail browsers (e.g. Outlook
Express) will flag you with a warning when you attempt to do this.
In general, it's not a good thing to do to either activate Word macros
in strange Word files, or to use programs that are emailed to you, unless
you know their source. The latter is, apparently, one of the major ways in
which viruses are spread across the Net.
The other thing to remember is that I once heard that users tend to
cause more damage in attempting to rid themselves of a virus, than the virus
itself does. So don't panic, and get yourself a decent virus checker.
Graeme
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