yahoo-geddon: UPDATED 12/20/2019 Update To Earlier Warning About Virus Alerts In Verizon’s Ge

UPDATED 12/20/2019
Update To Earlier Warning About Virus Alerts In Verizon’s GetMyData YahooGroups! Data

After more testing, here is what we have learned.Verizon’s “GetMyData” (GMD) files will be flagged by antivirus software in two main areas:
Messages.zip
Files.zip
The flags are handled differently for Messages vs. Files, and depending on your virus software, the flags may result in some - or all - of your groups data being deleted - even the uninfected files.
What to do?
Read the latest update out the Google Doc (link)
We offer streamlined suggestions and an offer to help.
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December 19, 2019
Both the Yahoo Gedden and Archive Teams are doing more testing. There is malicious HTML code buried inside some of the mbox messages...how and when (or even if) it could be activated is still a question. There is no question however, that the GMD Files.zip contain questionable items which most virus programs seem capable of detecting and deleting.
The bigger problem is that while some virus programs don’t even see the ‘bad code’ inside the mbox files, others do and they are triggered to either delete the entire mbox (thousands of uninfected messages are deleted) or even worse, the entire GMD file (all the downloaded Groups).
We plan to reach out to Wilson (PG Offline) to confirm our thinking that the downloaded PG Offline emails in of themselves are not a problem,. However, PG Offline was set to download attachments and of course people used it to download files and photos and links (HTML). In any event users should scan their PG Offline folders first (which are usually stored in C:\Users\XXXX\AppData\Local\PG Offline 4
Check back at the Google Doc for updates: (link)
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December 18, 2019
Please check your Verizon YahooGroups! data downloads for virus, trojan and spyware. Verizon offers “Get My Data” downloads of Yahoo Group email messages, links and files. They maycontain security risks for desktop users (Windows and Mac Users)
Those who downloaded their Groups using third party tools like PGOffline and Python - you may also be impacted if you downloaded attachments, files, links or photos. PGOffline automatically includes attachments along with messages. And some of the messages themselves might have buried malicious HTML code so even if so you only downloaded messages, please scan your PGOffline database and download folders.
***Please follow these suggestions at your own risk. When in doubt, contact your virus software manufacturer.***** (link to more info)