tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Dec 06 16:31:21 1994
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
E'Mail Virus Hoax
- From: "randy stamm" <[email protected]>
- Subject: E'Mail Virus Hoax
- Date: Tue, 06 Dec 94 16:15:59 PST
I know this is a sort of spam, but since the topic arose here, I thought I would
pass this along to all and sundry:
Rand
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE "Good Times" VIRUS IS AN URBAN LEGEND
In the early part of December, CIAC started to receive information requests
about a supposed "virus" which could be contracted via America OnLine, simply by
reading a message. The following is the message that CIAC received:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Here is some important information. Beware of a file called Goodtimes. | |
| |
Happy Chanukah everyone, and be careful out there. There is a virus on | |
America Online being sent by E-Mail. If you get anything called "Good | |
Times", DON'T read it or download it. It is a virus that will erase your | |
hard drive. Forward this to all your friends. It may help them a lot. |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
THIS IS A HOAX. Upon investigation, it has been determined that this message
originated from both a user of America Online and a student at a university at
approximately the same time, and it was meant to be a hoax.
Other variations of this hoax have been seen, the main one is that any
electronic mail message with the subject line of "xxx-1" will infect your
computer.
This rumor has been spreading very widely. This spread is due mainly to the
fact that many people have seen a message with "Good Times" in the header. They
delete the message without reading it, thus believing that they have saved
themselves from being attacked. These first-hand reports give a false sense of
credibility to the alert message.
There has been one confirmation of a person who received a message with "xxx-1"
in the header, but an empty message body. Then, (in a panic, because he had
heard the alert), he checked his PC for viruses (the first time he checked his
machine in months) and found a pre-existing virus on his machine.
He incorrectly came to the conclusion that the E-mail message gave him the
virus (this particular virus could NOT POSSIBLY have spread via an E-mail
message). This person then spread his alert.
As of this date, there are no known viruses which can infect merely through
reading a mail message. For a virus to spread some program must be executed.
Reading a mail message does not execute the mail message. Yes, Trojans have
been found as executable attachments to mail messages,
But this is not the case for this particular "virus" alert.
If you encounter this message being distributed on any mailing lists, simply
ignore it or send a follow-up message stating that this is a false rumor.