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Subject:Re: New virus by email - vicious one From:Caryn Rizell <CARYN_RIZELL -at- HP-ROSEVILLE-OM2 -dot- OM -dot- HP -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 3 Nov 1995 08:37:27 -0800
Item Subject: New virus by email - vicious one
I hope someone verifies this for us. Didn't we hear about this one last
year, and it was a big hoax?
Caryn Rizell
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: New virus by email - vicious one
Author: Non-HP-TECHWR-L (TECHWR-L -at- VM1 -dot- ucc -dot- okstate -dot- edu) at HP-Roseville,unixgw3
Date: 11/2/95 10:46 AM
Eric, I think this affects us all. Most of us don't hang around any virus
Lists
or newsgroups.
I just received an urgent virus alert from my company, a vicious one that
propagates by email. That means US!
Text follows.
***********************************************
Please do not read any mail messages with the subject
"Good Times" it may contain a virus. Just delete the message.
Details:
The FCC released a warning last Wednesday October 25/95 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, 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 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.
**************************
Dick again.
There may well be "funny" people that will use a "GOOD TIMES" heading on
a harmless message, but I think doing that would be a good way to
send a totally unread message. Imagine a 100% deletion rate! Wild Billy
never ranked so high!
Dick Dimock
AT&T GIS
El Segundo, CA
richard -dot- dimock -at- elsegundoca -dot- attgis -dot- com
