Subject: STOP RUMOR!/HOAX
I received two e-mail messages about the bogus virus. Please read below and
inform anyone you've passed the message to that the viris is not real!! Isn't
it amazing how a snowball grows and grows and grows. Have fun!
****************************
(12/7/94) ......
Today the network is reporting that the virus of which I informed you yesterday
is a hoax. Below is the full text of the new information, if you're interested.
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, CIAC has 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.
CIAC has also seen other variations of this hoax, 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, the most notorious being
the IBM VM Christmas Card Trojan of 1987, also the TERM MODULE Worm (reference
CIAC Bulletin B-7) and the GAME2 MODULE Worm (CIAC Bulletin B-12). 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.
Catherine Cummings "MAY THE [Union] FORCE BE WITH YOU"
213 Agricultural Engineering
University of Minnesota [log in to unmask]
1390 Eckles Ave Telephone 612 625 7733
St. Paul, MN 55108 USA FAX 612 624 3005
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