E-Mail Worm - Warning: More Variants Of Sober E-mail Worm Expected

Apparently, an e-mail message appearing to be from either the CIA or the FBI is an effective technique for spreading e-mail worms. In late November 2005, an e-mail from the "Sober" variant of e-mail worms (specifically referred to as either W32.Sober.X@mm or W32/Sober@MM!M681) spread like wildfire across the globe. Hundreds of millions of messages were sent by unsuspecting e-mail recipients after opening e-mail attachments that appeared to be from the CIA, FBI, or the German BKA police agency. The attachments contained an e-mail worm which then sent the same mass-mailing worm to e-mail addresses found within the compromised computer — again spoofing the "from" address in many cases to appear like the message was coming from the CIA, FBI, or BKA. (As with previous versions of the Sober worm, only Windows-based computers were/are infected by the Sober worm.)

The November 2005 Sober worm variant was sent with either German or English text thereby suggesting once again that each of the 30 Sober worm variants dating back to October 2003 were likely written by a German author or a group of German authors.

Although the "from" address, the subject line text, and the body text of this worm vary widely, below are two examples of the W32.Sober.X@mm Worm.



Many security experts are speculating that since November's Sober worm variant had a built-in expiration date, the author of the worm is probably working on the creation of improved versions of the worm. In other words, there's more to come.

If you receive an e-mail like the one described above, delete it immediately and do NOT open the e-mail message's attachment. We strongly encourage each and every one of our Internet customers to protect their computers with anti-virus software. Of course, it is also vitally important to regularly update your computer's anti-virus software. New viruses and worms are discovered daily. Be sure to scan all file attachments of incoming e-mail messages, even messages from people you trust. Many viruses and worms are spread over networks, through attachments, and by sharing storage media such as diskettes, Zip disks, and CDs. You have the ultimate responsibility for protecting your computer against these threats.

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Customers Helped To Make The Season Bright - Food And Toy Drive Another Success

Thank you to all of the customers who brought in a donation during our annual Food and Toy drive. Each customer who donated received a bag of chocolates and a chance to win a Holiday Gift Basket.

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Ask The Help Desk - Can I Get More Results To Appear On Google Search Page?

Question: I usually go to google.com when doing a search on the Web. When typing in a word or phrase into Google's search box, the resulting page gives me only ten listed Web pages to review. Is there a way to get more than ten listings?

Answer: Yes. On difficult searches it is sometimes necessary to go deeper than the first ten listings provided on a search results page. Google allows you to change the preferences on its site to show 10, 20, 30, 50, or even the top 100 search results all on one page. To adjust your settings, click on the "Preferences" link to the right of Google's search box. Scroll down to the "Number of Results" area and choose the number of pages you'd like displayed on your results page. Next, click "Save Preferences" located at the bottom right corner of the page and then click "OK" on the resulting pop-up window.

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Great Sites To Check Out This Month

Get Help With Your Weight Loss Resolution
http://home.howstuffworks.com/diet.htm -  Have you made your annual resolution to lose those extra pounds? This site provides great insight on how our bodies work when it comes to consuming and burning calories. Did you know that a gallon of gasoline contains about 31,000 calories and that if humans could drink gasoline instead of eating pizza and burgers for calories, we could run more than 300 miles on just one gallon of gasoline? Our bodies are the ultimate hybrid engines! It's this efficiency that can sometimes make it difficult to peel off pounds. However, knowledge is power. To learn more about how our body reacts to calorie intake, diet, and exercise, head to this site.

Visit The St. Paul Winter Carnival This Month
http://Winter-Carnival.com -  The St. Paul Winter Carnival is like a large state fair, except that it takes place in the middle of the winter. Held annually since 1886, it is billed as the largest and oldest winter festival in the United States. Each year organizers build a huge, elaborate ice palace. (The tallest palace was built in 1992 and was fifteen stories high.) The festival includes ice carving competitions, car racing on ice, frozen 5K and 1/2 marathon races, ice fishing contests, fireworks, parades, snow sculpture displays, and more. This year's event runs January 27th through February 5th. See this site for schedules, history, pictures, and more.

Break A World Record In 2006
http://GuinnessWorldRecords.com -  It's a new year so why not make this the time to do something that'll make you famous -- well, sort of famous. The world record for balancing on one foot is 76 hours and 40 minutes. You could go for 77 hours. Another person has a record for balancing 88 pounds of milk cartons on his head for 11.23 seconds. Why not go for twelve seconds? The longest time for continuously spinning a basketball on one finger is three hours and 59 minutes. Come on, what's four hours? Before you start your balancing endeavors, however, head to this site to find out the official rules and regulations and to register your record attempt. It's the only way to get the official recognition you'll so richly deserve!

American Idol Returns For Fifth Season
http://IdolOnFox.com -  Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, and Randy Jackson return this month for their fifth season as judges on the hit show American Idol. The Fox channel plans to air approximately 43 hours of Idol competition through this May compared to 38.5 hours last season. The format will remain the same. The first three weeks will be local audition episodes followed by two weeks in Hollywood where semi-finalists are chosen. Voting by viewers starts in late February. Do you want to relive season four? The site contains links to thousands of photos and videos from last year's auditions.

The XX Olympic Winter Games Are Coming Soon To Torino
http://torino2006.org/ENG/OlympicGames/home/index.html -  It's not too late to make your plans and book a trip to Italy for next month's XX Olympic Winter Games. For information on everything from the opening ceremonies, to parking information, to accommodations, to ticket information, this is your source for the latest news. There are also links to lots of great action photos, stories about many of the athletes who will compete, as well as updates on the Olympic Torch Relay, which will have visited over 600 communities by the time the games begin on February 10, 2006.

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Short Tutorial - Backing Up Your Browser's Favorites/Bookmarks

January is a good time to clean-up your computer and back-up important files. One easy but important item to back-up periodically is your browser's "Favorites" (when using Internet Explorer) or "Bookmarks" (when using Firefox, Safari, or Netscape). Here's how to export and save these files:

Exporting Favorites From Your Internet Explorer 6.0 Browser When Using Windows XP Home Edition

1. With Internet Explorer open, click your cursor arrow on the "File" menu and drop down to "Import and Export." The Import/Export Wizard will start.
2. Click on the "Next" button.
3. Choose "Export Favorites" from the list of actions to perform and click "Next."
4. Select the "Favorites" folder for exporting and click "Next."
5. Choose a destination for your exported favorites by clicking on the "Browse" button. Give the exported favorites file a name and select a destination for it.
6. Click the "Save" button and then click on the "Next" button.
7. Now click on the "Finish" button.

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We hope you found this newsletter to be informative. It's our way of keeping you posted on the happenings here. If, however, you'd prefer not to receive these bulletins on a monthly basis, click HERE.

Thanks for your business!

Best regards,

All of Us at Scatter Creek InfoNet





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