ANST - Virus warning is a hoax

Froebel at austin.asc.slb.com Froebel at austin.asc.slb.com
Fri Sep 5 07:40:31 PDT 1997


Susan,

I get so many of these virus warnings, I have written this letter to
forward to my loved ones (you) to let them know about how you can and
can't get a virus. This was in reply to another "warning" I got from
some friends. That warning was 6 months ago and had the same name as the
one you mailed me. I think McAffe would have found that one in 6
months... :)

Love, Elizabeth

--------------------------------------------------------

Part of this E-mail is copied from
http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACHoaxes.html#identify

You cannot get a virus from opening an E-mail message. 

For a virus to spread, it must be executed. Reading a mail message does
not execute the mail message. Trojans and viruses have been found as
executable attachments to mail messages, but they must be extracted and
executed to do any harm. Computer Incident Advisory Committee (CIAC)
still affirms that reading E-mail, using typical mail agents, can not
activate malicious code delivered in or with the message.

Users are requested to please not spread unconfirmed warnings about
viruses and Trojans. If you receive an unvalidated warning, don't pass
it to all your friends, pass it to your computer security manager to
validate first. Validated warnings from the incident response teams and
antivirus vendors have valid return addresses and are usually PGP signed
with the organization's key.

Individuals should also be especially alert if the warning urges you to
pass it on to your friends. This should raise a red flag that the
warning may be a hoax. Another flag to watch for is when the warning
indicates that it is a Federal Communication Commission (FCC) warning.
According to the FCC, they have not and never will disseminate warnings
on viruses. It is not part of their job. 

CIAC recommends that you DO NOT circulate virus warnings without first
checking with an authoritative source. Authoritative sources are your
computer system security administrator or a computer incident advisory
team. Real warnings about viruses and other network problems are issued
by different response teams (CIAC, CERT, ASSIST, NASIRC, etc.) and are
digitally signed by the sending team using PGP. If you download a
warning from a team's web site or validate the PGP signature, you can
usually be assured that the warning is real. Warnings without the name
of the person sending the original notice, or warnings with names,
addresses and phone numbers that do not actually exist are probably
hoaxes. 


> If you receive an e-mail titled "JOIN THE  CREW" DO NOT open it!
> It will erase EVERYTHING on your hard drive! 
> 
Impossible

> Send this letter out to as
> many people you can.......this is a new virus and not many people know
> about it!
> 
Suspicious if asking you to pass it to all your friends...

> This information was received this morning from IBM, please share it
> with anyone that might access the Internet.
> 
Nope, I saw this prank E-mail a year ago. 

> Also,
> If anyone receives mail entitled; PENPAL GREETINGS! please delete it
> WITHOUT reading it!!  This is a warning for all Internet users - there
> is
> a dangerous virus propagating across the Internet through an e-mail
> message entitled "PENPAL GREETINGS!".
> 
> DO NOT DOWNLOAD ANY MESSAGE ENTITLED "PENPAL GREETINGS"!!
> 
> This message appears to be a friendly letter asking you if you are
> interested in a penpal, but by the time you read this letter, it is
> too
> late. The trojan horse" virus will have already infected the boot
> sector
> of your hard drive, destroying all of the data present.  It is a
> self-replicating virus, and once the message is read, it will
> AUTOMATICALLY forward itself to anyone who's e-mail address is present
> in
> YOUR mailbox!
> 
Impossible. 

> This virus will DESTROY your hard drive, and holds the potential to
> DESTROY the hard drive of anyone whose mail is in your in box, and
> who's
> mail is in  their in box and so on.  If this virus keeps getting
> passed,
> it has the potential to do a great deal of DAMAGE to computer networks
> worldwide!!!!
> 
Ha! 

> Please, delete the message entitled "PENPAL GREETINGS!" as soon as you
> see it!  And pass this message along to all of your friends, relatives
> and the other readers of the newsgroups and mailing lists which you
> are
> on so that they are not hurt by this dangerous virus!!!!
> 
> Please pass this along to everyone you know so this can be stopped.
> PASS THIS ON TO YOUR FRIENDS!!! WARNING !!!
> 
> There is a new virus going arround in the last couple of days!!!
> 
> DO NOT open or even look at any mail that you get that says: "Returned
> or Unable to Deliver" This virus will attach itself to your computer
> components and render them useless. Immediately delete any mail items
> that says this. AOL has said this is a very danderous virus, and there
> is NO remedy for it at this time, Please Be Careful, And forward to
> all your on-line friends A.S.A.P.
> 
> Forward this A.S.A.P. to every single person you know!!!!!!!!!
> 
The Internet is constantly being flooded with information about computer
viruses and Trojans. However, interspersed among
real virus notices are computer virus hoaxes. While these hoaxes do not
infect systems, they are still time consuming and costly
to handle. CIAC finds that they are spending much more time de-bunking
hoaxes than handling real virus incidents. See
http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACHoaxes.html#identify for more information.


^-^  Elizabeth Froebel  Technical Writer, Schlumberger   
=+=  Froebel at slb.com    Austin Product Center            


> ----------
> From: 	Susan Froebel[SMTP:sross at flash.net]
> Sent: 	Thursday, September 04, 1997 8:06 PM
> To: 	froebel at slb.com
> Cc: 	froebel at slb.com
> Subject: 	Important re virus
> 
> Dear Elizabeth,
> 
> You might want to forward this to your list of friends.  Don't know if
> 
> it's a rumor or truth, but it is disturbing.
> 
> Love,
> Susan
> 
> >Date: Tue, 02 Sep 1997 14:28:55
> >To: ansteorra at ansteorra.org
> >From: Liz Allen <gerrod at msgroup.com>
> >Subject: Very Important
> >
> >If you receive an email titled "JOIN THE CREW"
> >
> >DO NOT OPEN IT!!!!!!!
> >
> >It will erase EVERYTHING in your hard drive!
> >
> >Please pass this on to all you can think of. This is a new virus that
> even McAfee hasn't broken yet
> >
> >In service,
> >
> >Gerrod/Liz
> 
> 
> 
> 
============================================================================

To be removed from the Ansteorra mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe ansteorra".



More information about the Ansteorra mailing list