e-mail virus warning

Vuorela Arto (arto.vuorela@TIIMI_PAS.nls.fi)
1 Nov 96 10:23:47 +0200

Hi.

(I quess you could forward this message, but do not mention the "Good Times"
in the e-mail subject field, even if you'd write something extra there
as well: if someone has heard about it, he/she won't read even the 
warning mail. I have not heard of e-mail viruses before..) 

A. Vuorela NLSF


Subject: URGENT MESSAGE: EXTREMELY DESTRUCTIVE VIRUS!!!

Read this and pass it on to anyone in your e-mail address book!
Subject: FW: Extremely Destructive Virus

There is a computer virus that is being sent across the Internet.  If you
receive an email message with the subject line "Good Times", DO NOT read
the message, DELETE it immediately.

Please read the messages below.

Some miscreant is sending email under the title "Good Times"
nationwide,
if you get anything like this, DON'T DOWNLOAD THE FILE!  It has a virus
that rewrites your hard drive, obliterating anything on it.  Please be
careful and forward this mail to anyone you care about.

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 use of AMERICA ONLINE that is
unparalleled in its destructive capability.  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 email 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.  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 email message with the subject line reading "Good
Times".  Avoiding infection is easy once the file has been received simply
by 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 email address is contained in a receive-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 is: if you receive a file with the subject line
"GoodTimes", 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.  Could you pass
this along to your global mailing list as well?


Michael Roberts, Ed. D.
Vocational Technological Education Coordinator
Northern Arizona University