I'm sorry to have to mail all these lists, but someone made the
bad mistake of sending a hoax to them, unknowingly.
>WARNING> long but important posting. No lbc content but you'll really
>want to know about this if you haven't heard already. I got this note
>from a friend at GE.
>Rik Schlierer "Keep a good thought"
>>There is a computer virus that is being sent across the Internet. If you
>>receive an e-mail message with the subject line "Good Times", DO NOT
>>read the message, DELETE it immediately. Please read the messages
>>below.
Sorry, but the GOOD TIMES "virus" is a hoax dreamed up (last year?)
ago by a bored student at some university. Apparently it has recently
been revived and is "infecting" a whole new bunch of people. By infecting,
I mean getting them to forward it to others, some of whom forward it to
others, etc. So I suppose you could call it a "virus" - it's an information
virus, a meme, that lives in the minds of those who believe it and pass it on.
This is a well-known hoax that everyone thought had died many months
ago. You CANNOT get a virus by reading mail. Mail does not control your
machine. The sicko who started this was playing on people's fear of virus's.
If you forwarded it to others, please try to stop the spread by telling
them it's a hoax (it's probably too late, of course). If you have a company-
internal newsgroup/noteboard, consider putting up a notice so others don't
get taken in. Consider that "inoculation" against this "virus".
Next time, please THINK before you forward, or ask someone who knows
something about computers (sysadmin, network admin, programmer, whoever). This
sort of shit will be increasing in years to come. If this had been real, it
would have been announced in things like news.announce.important, as a CERT
advisory, etc, not as private email. CERTAINLY don't forward them all over
giant mailing lists (or newsgroups). Please. The net will thank you.
--
Randell Jesup, Scala US R&D
Randell.Jesup@scala.com
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