New Virus Warning!
Jack Adams-Webber (jadams@spartan.ac.brocku.ca)
Fri, 28 Apr 95 08:20:15 -0400
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.
Some miscreant is sending e-mail under the title "good times"
nation-wide. If you get anything like this, DON'T DOWNLOAD THE FILE! 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.
***************************************************************************
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 Online 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 e-mail systems of the InterNet.
Once a computer is infected, one of several things can happen. If the
computer contains a hard drive, it 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 e-mail message with the subject line reading simply "Good
Times".
Avoiding infection is easy once the file has been received - 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 e-mail address is contained in a received-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 here 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! It could save them a lot of time and money.
Jack Adams-Webber Tel: 905 (688) 5544 [x 3714]
Department of Psychology Fax: 905 (688) 6922
Brock University E-mail: jadams@spartan.ac.brocku.ca
St. Catharines, Ontario
CANADA L2S 3A1
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%