Bugbear Hoax Email

*Warning* There is an email hoax circulating the net that warns users of the Bugbear virus and gives detailed instructions to users on how to detect (and if present) delete it. I just received this email from a friend a couple of days ago.

It discusses the bugbear virus, which is now well-known, and instructs users to see if the particular bugbear file has infected their system. Unfortunately, the file that is referenced in this email is not a virus, it is an important windows file for used javascript management within Internet Explorer. All Windows users will have this file, which, unfortunately, comes with a teddy bear icon! So, basically this particular email is a virus hoax, and is scaring many into believing they have the bugbear virus when in fact they don't. My friend deleted his file as per the email instructions, and as a result temporarily screwed up his computer!

For more information about this bugbear hoax, check out McAfee's page: http://vil.nai.com/vil/content/v_99436.htm

There is a real bugbear virus, of course(which some of you have experienced, I see). McAfee's info page for bugbear is here: http://vil.nai.com/vil/content/v_99728.htm

Remember, the most important thing you can do to avoid infection by any virus is to not click on email attachments that are in any way suspicious. Many viruses are spread rapidly because one aspect of some viruses is their ability to attach themselves to all outgoing emails by an infected user, and that user is totally anaware of it happening. Subsequently, a virus may come from someone you know! Many viruses come with a double extension (such as filename.doc.vbs) or something like that. Never click on a file with a double extension. Secondly, many virus programs give you the opportunity to scan email attachments before opening them, and some will scan all incoming email for viruses before you even see them, which is very effective. The first money anyone should spend on their computer is for virus detection software.

I learned this the hard way. My computer was infected with an email virus 2 years ago that wiped out my C drive and cost me 2 15-hour days to get my system up and running again. Fortunately I had backups of everything important. All this because I clicked on an attachment joke from a friend. When I called him he realized he had a virus (his computer was in the shop) but didn't realize he had also sent the virus to everyone in his email address book! Watch out.