The Wonderful World of Email, Viruses and On Line Scams & Hoaxes

Posted : 15 Aug 2002

Whenever you get a letter like the one below, basically just delete it, after emailing back the person who sent it to you that :

1) They must IMMEDIATELY warn everyone that he/she sent it to, that it is a fake
2) Following the instructions detailed will generally cause problems with their PC or Mac
3) They must never email you any virus warnings again because they don't really know what they are doing

I have had several people ask me on this one below and one mailed it to **hundreds** of people on her extensive email list and she also followed the detailed instructions to the letter and deleted the file from her computer. Strange but true. I got a good chuckle from this after she told me and I had to go and fix her PC after the event. Unfortunately, she wasn't so amused. But she did learn a valuable lesson.

These are the ONLY authorities you should listen to about viruses :

1) Me
2) Symantec (makers of Norton Anti-virus) : http://www.symantec.com
3) Macafee (Makers of Macafee & Virex) : http://www.mcafee.com/
4) VET (makers of VET) : http://www.vet.com.au/
5) PICA software (distributors of Virex) : http://www.pica.com.au/
6) CERT (security organisation) : http://www.cert.org/
7) Any other reputable anti-virus software manufacturers (there are several more)
8) If you work in a suitably large organisation you may have a computer professional on site that you should listen too.

Basically we all reckon we are experts on sex, religion, politics and in recent decades driving and computers, and while I will pass on giving advice on the others, I will put myself forward on the topic of computers. I'm sure we all know someone who is "supposedly" a computer expert. Friend, neighbor, whoever. These people are dangerous ! Well intentioned, but walking, talking computer time bombs. Almost as bad as viruses in their own little way...

When in doubt - ask me first. I keep up to date on both Mac (almost never) and PC (daily) viruses.

Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever spread what I call email virus chain letters like the one below. At best it just clogs up Internet bandwidth, at worst, you may stuff up many people's computer totally. Wouldn't you be popular !

If a really bad virus turns up, generally the US gets it first (lucky them) and the news, radio, TV, etc. all have information about it. The world generally doesn't need you doing your little bit to help spread the news.

Now if you don't keep your virus definitions up to date then you only have your self to blame (and you don't read my monthly warnings).

Viruses are real, they are out there, they will damage the files on your computer and in some cases even the hardware. Don't forget it ! There are viruses that modify the flash ROM bios on PC motherboards that will require you to get a new motherboard. This is why manufacturers who implemented this feature on their motherboards started to put in 2 bios's in case the first gets zapped by a virus... and strictly speaking, this is not a valid warranty claim either. Good luck on getting the person who wrote the virus to pay for the repairs.

Now all that being said, the virus risk on a Mac is minimal. Except for word and excel macros which keep on popping up from PC users every now and then. However, you can guarantee the day you stop checking and updating is the day you will get caught when some new virus hits the Internet. But on PC's, anyone who doesn't have up to date anti-virus software installed, active and working has rocks in their head. Big, heavy ones too. Or else runs a completely isolated computer. Norton Anti-virus 2002 on my PC scans for 61,011 viruses. Thats a ton of viruses by any definition. I think I read somewhere that 3,000 new PC viruses come out every month. Damn, those virus writers are busy little bees. And hopefully they wont start writing them for Mac's !

The latest viruses are exceedingly clever, spread rapidly, hide themselves fiendishly well and can even include built in email servers. The worst can install IRC chat clients on your PC which can allow anyone in the world to control your computer as if they were sitting in front of it. True ! That's why many businesses use firewalls alongside anti-virus software. It is a savage wilderness out there in the world of computing. Hackers, industrial espionage, saboteurs, terrorists, disgruntled employees. Be afraid !

Which reminds me. Have you backed up your data recently? Your hard disk may be just about to crash in the next 5 seconds (probably virus activity related too). Backing up doesn't mean have 2 copies of your data on the same hard disk either. Backing up means making 1 or more copies on separate media other than your hard disk. Floppy, zip, CD, etc. Off site is even more secure.

Please excuse my weird sense of humor with this email. My passion for the subject got the better of me.

Regards Mike

Message follows : Note this is a hoax - DO NOT follow the instructions detailed below like one of my clients did. Names are removed to protect the embarassed ...
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Hi everyone

I found the virus detailed below on my computer and have deleted it -
you'd better check yours as well.

Regards
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-----Original Message-----
From: ·······
Sent: 09 May 2002 08:26
To: ······
Subject: Fw: **VIRUS ALERT**