Subject: VIRUS! (fwd)

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 1 Nov 1996 11:59:23 -0600 (CST)

Hi, here is another info about another type of virus that my other friend
sent me and I don't know if this applies to me either, so you might want
to take a look at it.  I don't know if it is a joke either, thanks.

>...no, this is not a joke...this message is a serious warning...
>
>
>There is a computer virus that is being sent across the Internet.  If
>you receive an e-mail message with the subject line "Irina", DO NOT
>read the message. DELETE it immediately. Someone is sending people
>and files under the title "Irina". If you receive this mail or file, do not
>download it. It has a virus that rewrites your hard drive, obliterating
>anything on it. Please be careful and forward this mail to anyone you care
>about.
>
>(Information received from the Professor Edward Prideaux, College of
>Slavonic Studies, London).

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Bad command. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaay..
-------------------------------------------------------------------

---

From: Lea <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 1 Nov 1996 11:36:53 -0700 (MST)

On Fri, 1 Nov 1996 [email-masked] wrote:

> >and files under the title "Irina".

Man, the stuff you learn in this business.  
OK, so, from the above I learned that

   a)  FINALLY there's another name for the "Good
Times" spam; and
   b)  You can send people via e-mail.  Wonder what
*that* bit of news will do once the airlines hear about
it?

ROTFL :-)
Happy Friday!

Lea

---

From: Mike Harris <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 2 Nov 1996 20:39:41 -0500

On 1 Nov 1996 [email-masked] wrote:

# Hi, here is another info about another type of virus that my other friend
# sent me and I don't know if this applies to me either, so you might want
# to take a look at it.  I don't know if it is a joke either, thanks.
#
# There is a computer virus that is being sent across the Internet.  If
# you receive an e-mail message with the subject line "Irina", DO NOT
# read the message. DELETE it immediately. Someone is sending people
# and files under the title "Irina". If you receive this mail or file, do not
# download it. It has a virus that rewrites your hard drive, obliterating
# anything on it. Please be careful and forward this mail to anyone you care
# about.
# 
# (Information received from the Professor Edward Prideaux, College of
# Slavonic Studies, London).

From the "Good Times Virus Hoax FAQ", by Les Jones at [email-masked]
and [email-masked]:

"Q: Is an email virus possible?
  
"A: The short answer is no, not the way Good Times was described.
          
    The longer answer is that this is a difficult question that's
    open to nitpicking. Keep three things in mind when considering
    the question:

    1. A virus is computer specific. IBM PC viruses don't affect
       Macintoshes, and vice versa. That greatly limits the
       destructive power of viruses. (And notice that none of the
       Good Times warnings mention which types of computers are
       affected.)
    2. A virus, by definition, can't exist by itself.It must infect
       an executable program. To transmit a virus by email, someone
       would have to infect a file and attach the file to the email
       message. To activate the virus, you would have to download
       and decode the file attachment, then run the infected
       program. In that situation, the email message is just a
       carrier for an infected file, just like a floppy disk
       carrying an infected file.
    3. Some of the situations that people have dreamed up involve
       Trojan horses rather than viruses. A virus can only exist
       inside another program, which then automatically infects
       other programs. A Trojan horse is a program that pretends to
       do something useful, but instead does something nefarious.
       Trojans aren't infectious, so they're much less common than
       viruses.
            
       There are some email programs that can be set to automatically
       download a file attachment, decode it, and execute the file
       attachment. If you use such a program, you would be well
       advised to disable the option to automatically execute file
       attachments.
          
       You should, of course, be wary of any file attachments a
       stranger sends you. At the least, you should check such file
       attachments for viruses before running them."