Email Internet Virus

[JAY RANDALL REICHMAN]

>Date: Thu, 14 Dec 1995 22:55:02 -0600 
>To: JLBrown68 at aol.com 
>From: khaywood at mail.utexas.edu (Keene M. Haywood) 
>Subject: Email Internet Virus 
>Cc: belflite at orion.ae.utexas.edu, bosque at mail.utexas.edu, 
>        dolitl at mail.utexas.edu, pmiller at nwu.edu, YGHQ78D at prodigy.com, 
>        CCORNELI at WINNIE.FIT.EDU, SSeaFresh at aol.com, Narragan at aol.com, 
>        cstinson at mail.utexas.edu, kkishi at maestro.geo.utexas.edu, 
>        armentrc at ava.bcc.orst.edu, iomarine at tiac.net, waiblee at ucs.orst.edu, 
>        imanners at uts.cc.utexas.edu, ICLARM at CGNET.COM, 
>        J.Reichman at mail.utexas.edu, JeffM4079615 at eworld.com, 
>        jc690254 at bcm.tmc.edu, jgifford at rsmas.miami.edu, KB78 at COLUMBIA.EDU, 
>        k.foote at mail.utexas.edu, VonWestarp at aol.com, M.GOROSPE at CGNET.COM, 
>        SPATZY at aol.com, MQUETEL at TELEPORT.COM, NHay5600 at aol.com, 
>        nfowler at spice.cc.utexas.edu, drbob at mail.utexas.edu, 
>        rdoughty at mail.utexas.edu, roshanr at mail.utexas.edu, chocolat at eden.com, 
>        cshane at ccwf.cc.utexas.edu, DFLIGHT at HOOKED.NET, linscott at rice.edu, 
>        swells at ucb.edu.bz, tthys at acpub.duke.edu, dlarson340 at aol.com 
> 
>>>>Mail*Link(r) SMTP               FWD>Internet Virus Warning!!! 
>>>> 
>>>>>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" world-wide. If you 
>>>>>get anything like this, DON'T DOWN LOAD THE FILE!  It has a virus that 
>>>>>rewrites your hard drive, obliterating anything on it. Please be  
careful and 
>>>>>forward this mail --  I have. 
>>>> 
>>>>WARNING!!!!!!!!!: INTERNET VIRUS 
>>>>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 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! 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
> 
> 
Adios, 
Jay Reichman                                    
Department of Zoology 
University of Texas at Austin