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Re: internet virus

To: mgs@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: internet virus
From: singleton@ccsu.edu (Bill Singleton)
Date: Thu, 24 Oct 1996 06:48:41 -0600
>>Attention all people on the MG list.
>>
>>This message regarding the Good Times Virus and the PKZIP300.ZIP is a hoax.
>>

(repetitive stuff deleted ...)

>What was the confirming evidence that the viruses are a hoax?

A computer virus is a program and, in order for it to be activated, it must
be executed on the host computer.  Simply reading an email message does not
execute a program, which is one reason that it was determined quickly that
the Good Times virus is (and must be) a hoax.  Also, in order for a virus
to run, it must be in a format your computer understands (an executable
image).  These images differ between types of computers, so a virus on an
Intel PC wouldn't run on a Mac, Unix box, VAX, etc.

This is not to say that there aren't a lot of viruses out there.  Sadly,
there are.  However, for them to be effective, the makers have to write
them for your type of computer and get you to execute them somehow.

  --Bill

Bill Singleton

'52 TD (hers, and -- hopefully -- soon to go under the knife)
'77 MGB (ours, we needed an MG while waiting for the TD)



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