Virus hoaxes - false virus warnings
Security Information Week 32, 1999
From time to time there are virus alerts which turn out to be false alarms. Several of these are rumors saying that by opening an e-mail with a particular subject you are infected. Some also states that by opening a particular attachment to an e-mail infects your PC.
Quite many such virus hoaxes or myths exist. Among the most famous are The Irina virus, The Deeyenda virus, Good Times, Win a holiday, The California virus and so on.
Such a myth may say that if you open an e-mail with e.g. the subject "Good Times" your PC's files will be deleted.
Reading an e-mail cannot infect your PC by a computer virus!
However e-mail programs can send attachments to an e-mail message. Such attachments may be binary files (program files) or documents. By opening such an attachment without checking for virus by an updated virus control program, you are at the same risk as if you run any program or open any document without virus checking.
You should always use an updated version of a reliable virus control product to check the file before running the attachment.
Virus hoaxes often have these characteristics:
- Several exclamation marks in the Subject field.
- A lot of exclamation marks and capital letters in the body of the e-mail.
- Claims that the message originated from a well-known company (IBM, Microsoft etc.), thereby trying to make the message more reliable.
- Warnings that you should not open an e-mail with a special subject or an attachment with a special name.
- It urges you to forward the e-mail immediately to friends, colleagues and business associates to warn these.
More information about virus hoaxes and myths which circulate on the Internet are available from these web sites: Les Jones FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) about virus hoaxes or Rob Rosenberger's Computer Virus Myths Home Page.
Per Olav Førland
