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Virus Alert!
Recently, several potentially threatening viruses began circulating in email. In order to protect the integrity of our network, ensure the smooth functioning of all services and protect the security of our customers, we have initiated filters on our mail servers that will reject potentially infected messages. While these filters will not necessarily weed out every email transmitted virus, they will protect our customers and the SoVerNet network from many known viruses including the recently reported Melissa virus. The Melissa virus is transmitted via an infected Word document sent in email. This document must be opened using Microsoft Word97 or Word2000 in order to infect a computer. Once opened, the virus will attempt to exploit certain potential security vulnerabilities in order to propogate further. In particular, the virus may be able to take advantage of email address books in order to resend itself to as many as 50 other addresses.The transporting message will generally bear the following subject: Subject: Important Message From <name> Where <name> is the full name of the sender -- generally someone who has unknowingly been infected with the virus. In order to protect SoVerNet customers from this virus, we have initiated filters that will reject potentially infected messages based on their Subject header. Uninfected messages with a similar subject line will be filtered as well as there is no way to differentiate between the two. Simply resending the message with a subject that does not begin with "Important Message From..." will prevent filtering. For more information on the Melissa Macro and other known viruses please see the official Cert advisory which can be found at:
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