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David, Thanks for taking the time and advice us of the virus status. Henry Guttentag David Robert Austen wrote: > > Sorry, folks. This is just a modern version of War of the (Cyber) Worlds. > Please read this message from Indiana University's systems people in > response to my questions. . . > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > Date: Sat, 24 Aug 1996 20:58:29 -0500 (EST) > From: Greg <[log in to unmask]> > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: good times > > ***** The "Good Times" virus is an urban legend!*** > > [from the CIAC notes] > > In the early part of December 1994, CIAC started to receive information > requests about a supposed "virus" which could be contracted via America > Online, simply by reading a message. > > 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. > > Karyn Pichnarczyk > CIAC Team > [log in to unmask] > > CIAC is the U.S. Department of Energy's Computer Incident Advisory > Capability. For up-to-date information on computer viruses (and hoaxes, > such as "Good Times"), see the CIAC Web page: http://ciac.llnl.gov > > You can find more information about the Good Times hoax on the CIAC Web > site at these URLs: http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/notes/Notes09.shtml > http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/notes/Notes05d.shtml