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AOL Time Warner internal virus

According to a source at Time Warner, a disgruntled employee has injected a virus into their internal network that tells staff they are due for a 26.75% bonus on their work. The virus encourages employees to "submit an application" for the raise, by "turning in the attachment". The virus email ends by thanking the employee for all their hard work.

From: TWBenefitHR@aol.com [mailto:TWBenefitHR@aol.com]

Sent: Sunday, April 04, 2004 xxxxxx

To: undisclosed-recipients

Subject: AOLTW Bonuses and Wages Letter

Payroll Changes for April 2004

Brought to you by HRDirect! (hr.office.aol.com)

A number of employees are receiving this E-mail today in regards to their

current payroll status.

As of today we are sending this letter out to inform each and every one of

you that we have agreed that you need a bigger paycheck! Due to the time

that you have been working with the company and your work, we have audited

and reviewed your status and are offering up to a 26.75% bonus on your

paychecks to come.

In conjunction with our notice, we have also attatched the application that

will need to be turned in via E-mail to obtain your payroll changes.

Please be aware that your application MUST be sent in befoe April 6th, 2004

in order for you to be eligable for this change. If you have any questions,

email us back at Payroll.Questions@hr.office.aol.com.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Thanks for your hard work and cooperation!

AOL Human Resources Department

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Most recommended from 46 comments



2kmaro
Think

join:2000-07-11
Oklahoma City, OK

2 recommendations

2kmaro

Lesson 2B Learned

The most dangerous employee in today's business world may well be that little, often-overlooked, underpaid and overworked guy with all the passwords to all the accounts, servers and direct access to the mail server!!
said by Scene at IT shop:

I'm fired? Oh well, guess it was just a matter of time... Just let me finish up what I was doing...
types furiously: Delete *.*[enter]
Ok, all done. Oh, and did you get my memo about possibly wanting to move off of Windows systems?


2 recommendations

ResidentParanoid

Anon

Yet another example of lax security.

Great timing...

Just doing some channel surfing on the central FL BrightHouse cable, and hit the channel guide. Except it wasn't the channel guide, it was the computer they use to generate it, with a porn spam IM sitting on the screen.

Called the customer-no-service line and explained that they had a problem with the non-digital channel guide, and that they might want to do something about it.

She told me to reboot my smartbox to fix it. I DON'T HAVE A #%$& SMARTBOX ON THIS THING! Then she wanted my account number or address so they could see if it was a problem with my equipment or neighborhood. I patiently explained to her that the problem wasn't on my end, and asked if she had a non-digital TV she could see from her desk. She said yes. Told her to put it on channel 49 (the guide). "Oh!" she said, "I'll be right back"

And then the mouse on the screen started jumping all over the place as somebody tried to fix it. Turns out that there were several more of the IM's waiting behind the front one. After a few moments of clicking to close them, they apparently rebooted the box.

The real question here is why the heck do they have a box like that sitting directly on the internet? And why is the messenger service running on it anyway?