Nyxem Worm to overwrite files.

Originally published
Note: This article was published while I was in my early 20s. I was much younger and dumber. Please don't hold it against me. One of the perils of having a 20+ year old website!

Last week PC World wrote about the Nyxem Worm, a worm that spreads via e-mail and has the potential to be very harmful. Lying dormant until this Friday, Feb. 2nd, the virus will truncate, or cut off parts of files, making them unable to open. You can get the low down on the virus here/

The email, as stated by PC World, may have the subject “Miss Lebanon 2006” or “School girl fantasies gone bad”. To try and prevent this virus from severely damaging your computer, I would suggest updating your virus definitions and scanning every day until Friday. It also wouldn’t hurt to do a TrendMicro Scan with Housecall. Finally, and most importantly, BACK UP YOUR IMPORTANT DATA. This is something that people should do all along, but really, most people do not. The best was to back up is probably a CD for all your important documents and such. I second hard drive is ideal, but not to many people have those hanging around. If you are on a network, put them up on the network and have someone put them on their computer for you. There are lots of ways to do a back up.

If you have any questions, feel free to comment. I usually answer promptly, and that way everyone can see the discussion. Fun for the whole class! Later!