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At last,
the contents of Aardvark's "million-dollar ideas" notebook
are revealed for all to see!
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I expect that many Aardvark readers will have already received at least one
copy of an email advising them to delete the sulfnbk.exe from their
computer's hard drive because it's a virus.
Of course this email is another instance of a behavioural virus -- one
which spreads and replicates by exploiting human nature.
While it is possible that the sulfnbk.exe file on your computer contains
a virus, the same can be said for any executable file -- but you're not
going to delete them all "just in case" are you?
It's hard to tell whether this viral message was born out of a deliberate
attempt to trick people into potentially crippling their own machines or
whether it was an unexpected side-effect of someone's system being
infected with the rather nasty W32.Magistr virus.
The W32.Magistr virus and its variants are particularly nasty because not
only are they polymorphic (ie: they keep changing themselves to avoid
detection) but they also spread by sending themselves to users on your
email address list -- sometimes appearing as a valid system file such as
sulfnbk.exe, actmovie.exe, or similar.
I'd hazard a guess that this particular email message, copies of which have
now spread to all corners of the globe, was originally written by someone
who had actually received a copy of the W32.Magistr virus by email,
disguised as a replacement sulfnbk.exe file.
In good faith, they probably sent the warning to everyone on their email list,
and they in turn probably did the same.
As you can see, the number of people receiving that warning pretty soon becomes
a very large number and a simple warning gains a life of its own.
It's not know how many people have deleted this system file (responsible
for rebuilding long filenames), thinking they were protecting themselves
from a viral attack -- when in fact they'd just become the victim of a
spontaneously generated and virally distributed email.
What strikes me as frightening is the way that this spontaneous new
viral strain, which relies on well established human behavioural patterns,
so closely mimicks the spontaneous mutation or creation of new biological
viruses in the real world.
One can't help but wonder -- what next?
Is it really safe to leave your PC turned on at night?
Is the Lawnmower Man just a work of fiction?
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