A New Computer Worm Poses as E-Mail from FBI that warns users about "illegal" net use is spreading online...

This malicious code bearing e-mail message claims to be coming from either the FBI, CIA or German BKA police agency. It warns users they have been detected visiting illegal sites and asks you to open an attachment to answer some official questions. Those opening this questionnaire will be infected by a variant of the well-known 'Sober virus'.

 

It's being called the worst computer worm of the year, as reported by The Washington Post. Anti-virus firms have caught millions of copies of the malicious program, suggesting a lot of people have fallen for the fake warning.

 

The worm - named "Sober X" - has spread so far so fast that the CIA and the FBI have put prominent warnings on their Web sites, making clear that they did not send out the e-mail and urging people to not open the attachment. The FBI is currently investigating the source of the attack.

 

"Sober X" upon infection, disables security and firewall programs and blast out similar e-mails to contacts in your address book. It can also prevent you from connecting to computer security Web sites that might help to fix the problem, and it may open up your computer to intruders who can steal your personal data and information.

 

Sober is known to affect only those computers running the Windows operating system. It appears that Apple and Linux computer users were not affected.

 

Read more Articles on this:

 

Fake FBI virus catches net users
BBC News [Thursday, 24 November 2005]

 

Computer Worm Poses as E-Mail From FBI, CIA
Washington Post [Thursday, November 24, 2005]

 

Latest Sober threatens e-mail gateways
ZDNet News [November 23, 2005]

 

FBI warns about sober variant email scam
Xinhua News Agency [2005-11-24]

 

The first commercially produced sound recordings are Online

Cylinder recordings are the first commercially produced sound recordings and are a snapshot of musical and popular culture in the decades around the turn of the 20th century.

The Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project under The Department of Special Collections at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) Davidson Library has recently placed online amazing collection of over 5000 Cylinder recordings from the late 1800s and early 1900s, all transferred from Edison cylinders. The restored recordings are in 'MP3' format while the unrestored digitization's available in large 'WAV' files format. They can be freely downloaded or streamed online.

On this site you will have the opportunity to find out more about the cylinder format, listen to thousands of musical and spoken selections from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and discover a little-known era of recorded sound. Click the search button to begin, or sample some of our favorite selections in the Featured Cylinder section. Browse the collection. Listen to a 1902 track by Geroge W. Johnson, the first African-American phonograph star, and one from 1914 by Henry Burr, the biggest Canadian star of the era or try dance-type jazz, like 1920's 'Peggy' by Lopez and Hamilton's Kings of Harmony Orchestra........

Gene removal makes flies live up to six times longer, study finds....

World Science (www.world-science.net) is reporting that scientists at the University of Southern California found that removing some gene makes fruit flies live up to six times longer than normal. Experiments have produced one of the longest recorded life-span extensions in any organism and opened doors for anti-aging research in humans, researchers say....

 

Read more on this here: http://www.world-science.net/othernews/051117_lifespanfrm.htm