Subject: Re:] E-mail Virus

From: [email-masked] (Jim West)
Date: Mon, 17 Jun 1996 12:25:33 -0400 (EDT)

For your Info:

>************************************************************
>            WARNING!!!!!!!  INTERNET VIRUS
>************************************************************
>
>The FCC released a warning last Wednesday concerning a matter of major
>importance to any regular user of the Internet. Apparently a new computer
>virus has been engineered by a user of AMERICA ON LINE that is
>unparalleled in its destructive capability. Other more well-known viruses
>such as "Stoned", "Airwolf" and Michaelangelo" pale in comparison to the
>prospects of this newest creation by a warped mentality. What makes this
>virus so terrifying, said the FCC, is the fact that no program needs to be
>exchanged for a new computer to be infected. It can be spread through the
>existing email systems of the Internet. Once a Computer is infected, one
>of several things can happen. If the computer contains a hard drive, that
>will most likely be destroyed.
>
> If the program is not stopped, the computer's processor will be placed in
>an nth-complexity infinite binary loop -which can severely damage the
>processor if left running that way too long. Unfortunately, most novice
>computer users will not realize what is happening until it is far too
>late.  Luckily, there is one sure means of detecting what is now known as
>the "Good Times" virus. It always travels to new computers the same way in
>a text email message with the subject line reading "Good Times". Avoiding
>infection is easy once the file has been received simply by NOT READING
>IT!
>
>The act of loading the file into the mail server's ASCII buffer causes the
>"Good Times" mainline program to initialize and execute.
>
>The program is highly intelligent- it will send copies of itself to
>everyone whose email address is contained in a receive-mail file or a
>sent-mail file, if it can find one. It will then proceed to trash the
>computer it is running on. The bottom line there is - if you receive a
>file with the subject line "Good Times", delete it immediately! Do not
>read it"  Rest assured that whoever's name was on the "From" line was
>surely struck by the virus.  Warn your friends and local system users of
>this newest threat to the Internet!
>

---

From: Vincent Broman <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 17 Jun 96 10:09:57 PDT

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>            WARNING!!!!!!!  INTERNET VIRUS

Please don't propagate this warning any further.
It is laced with amusing double-talk and technical impossibilities.
Ordinary garden-variety email cannot spread viruses unless
they send you a _program_ and tell you to trustingly run it on your machine
and you fall for it.

Vincent Broman,  code 783 Bayside                        Email: [email-masked]
Naval Command Control and Ocean Surveillance Center, RDT&E Div.
San Diego, CA  92152-6147,  USA                          Phone: +1 619 553 1641
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