|
First of all I want to give a short definition of a virus hoax:
A virus hoax is a false warning about a computer virus. Typically, the warning arrives in an e-mail note or is distributed through a note in a company's internal network. These notes are usually forwarded using distribution lists and they will typically suggest that the recipient forward the note to other distribution lists.
History of hoaxes
Since 1988, computer virus hoaxes have been circulating the Internet. Form this time on virus hoaxes have flooded the Net. With thousands of viruses worldwide, virus paranoia in the community has risen to an extremely high level. It is this paranoia that fuels these false warnings. A good example of this behaviour is the "Good Times" virus hoax which started in 1994 and is still circulating the Internet today. Instead of spreading from one computer to another by itself, good times relies on people to pass it along!
How to identify a hoax
There are a few characteristics which help to spot a hoax:
1. It's a warning message about a virus (or occasionally a Trojan) spreading on the Internet.
2. It's usually from an individual or from a trustworthy company, but never from a cited source.
3. It warns not to read or open an email message with a special subject (like "Good Times") or download the supposed virus and delete the message.
4. It describes the virus as having horrific destructive powers and often the ability to send itself by email.
5. It urges to alert everyone you know and usually tells you this more than once.
6. It seeks credibility by describing the virus in specious technical sounding language.
But although a virus hoax is now easily to spot, there is still a problem to concentrate on. It's obvious that for a virus to spread, it must be executed. Reading a mail message does not execute the mail message. BUT, Trojans and viruses have been found as executable attachments to email messages. If you save the attachment and scan it before executing it, you are safe (if you have a good anti-virus program of course).
Another problem is that some people who create real viruses can use known hoaxes to their advantage. A good example is the AOL4FREE hoax. This began as a hoax warning about a nonexistent virus. Once it was known that this was a hoax somebody began to distribute a destructive Trojan horse in a file named AOL4FREE attached to the original hoax virus warning! The lesson is: always remain vigilant and NEVER open a suspicious attachment!
What to do when I receive a virus warning
First of all, try to find out if it's a hoax. If you are not sure, you can visit different homepages (www.av.ibm.com, www.symantec.com, www.mcafeeb2b.com, www.europe.datafellows.com, https://ciac.llnl.gov .) where you can check the warning message against updated lists of virus hoaxes and of real viruses. If you don't find the supposed virus in neither of these lists there is always an email address given where you can turn to.
The most important point is that you SHOULD NEVER FORWARD any of these false virus alert messages. Send a message to the person who sent you the hoax message and tell him or her it's a hoax. You may also want to point that person to some sites in the Internet which explain virus hoaxes.
Why ignore them - they are just harmless
1. Virus hoaxes play on peoples' fear. Especially new or inexperienced computer users do easily believe these warnings. If they are not informed about virus hoaxes they will forward all warnings to everybody and this can have unpleasant consequences. Some email systems have collapsed after dozens of users forwarded a false alert to everybody in the company.
2. Hoax virus warning messages are more than mere annoyances. After repeatedly becoming alarmed only to learn that there was no real virus, computer users may get into the habit of ignoring all virus warning messages, leaving them especially vulnerable to the next real, and truly destructive, virus.
So be careful and never forget what common sense tells you!
|
