Security Alert: New e-mail virus - foto*.zip attachments are being blocked (08/31/04)

This afternoon (Tuesday, 31 August 04) a new e-mail virus has made a widespread appearance on campus. At this time neither Symantec AntiVirus nor the PureMessage anti-virus filters on the CIT mail servers are able to detect or block it.

The virus arrives as an attachment to an e-mail message that typically has just "foto" for a subject line and body, and an attacment called "fotos.zip". Do not open the attachment as this will launch the virus.

To protect campus against this threat, we are temporarily blocking delivery of any e-mail attachments named "foto*.zip". Once updates addressing this threat have been installed on CIT's mail servers, we will lift this temporary block.

Another message will go out to CIT Alert-L once we have more definitive information about this threat and specific remedies.

For general information about viruses that are spread by e-mail, please see CIT's Warning about e-mail and viruses page.

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If you need assistance, please contact the CIT Contact Center (HelpDesk) by calling 255-8990, by sending e-mail to helpdesk@cornell.edu, or by visiting 119 CCC. The Contact Center is open Monday-Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with extended phone hours Monday-Thursday from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. during the academic year. If the Contact Center is closed and your problem is urgent, contact the Network Operations Center at 255-9900.

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You can receive messages like this via e-mail by subscribing to the CIT-Alert-L mailing list, which is used to distribute announcements about significant disruptions or threats to the campus computing and telecommunications environment. Visit the CIT-Alert-L subscription page

Last modified: June 04, 2007