A virus alert update

[ANGELA M GULICK <AFAMG@acad2.alaska.edu>]

Just got this from my friend Margaret and since I started part of the panic
about viruses yesterday, I felt it my duty to pass it along.  sorry.  Next time
I'll just keep my mouth/screen shut and let the computer hackers have their
day.  Why do people do things like this (start viruses, false rumors, etc.)?
Weren't they loved as children?  Ugh.  anyway, sorry 'bout the mix-up.
 
Passing this along...
 
> THE "Good Times" VIRUS IS AN URBAN LEGEND
>
> In the early part of December, CIAC started to receive information requests
> about a supposed "virus" which could be contracted via America OnLine, simply
> by reading a message.  The following is the message that CIAC received:
>
>  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> | Here is some important information. Beware of a file called Goodtimes.    |
> |                                                                           |
> |  Happy Chanukah everyone, and be careful out there. There is a virus on   |
> | America Online being sent by E-Mail.  If you get anything called "Good    |
> | Times", DON'T read it or download it.  It is a virus that will erase your |
> | hard drive.  Forward this to all your friends.  It may help them a lot.   |
>  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> THIS IS A HOAX.  Upon investigation, CIAC has determined that this message
> originated from both a user of America Online and a student at a university
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> at approximately the same time, and it was meant to be a hoax.
>
> CIAC has also seen other variations of this hoax, the main one is that any
> electronic mail message with the subject line of "xxx-1" will infect your
> computer.
>
> This rumor has been spreading very widely.  This spread is due mainly to the
> fact that many people have seen a message with "Good Times" in the header.
> They delete the message without reading it, thus believing that they have
> saved themselves from being attacked. These first-hand reports give a false
> sense of credibility to the alert message.
>
> There has been one confirmation of a person who received a message with
> "xxx-1" in the header, but an empty message body.  Then, (in a panic, because
> he had heard the alert), he checked his PC for viruses (the first time he
> checked his machine in months) and found a pre-existing virus on his machine.
>  He incorrectly came to the conclusion that the E-mail message gave him the
> virus (this particular virus could NOT POSSIBLY have spread via an E-mail
> message).  This person then spread his alert.
>
> As of this date, there are no known viruses which can infect merely through
> reading a mail message.  For a virus to spread some program must be executed.
> Reading a mail message does not execute the mail message.  Yes, Trojans have
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> been found as executable attachments to mail messages, the most notorious
> being the IBM VM Christmas Card Trojan of 1987, also the TERM MODULE Worm
> (reference CIAC Bulletin B-7) and the GAME2 MODULE Worm (CIAC Bulletin B-12).
>  But this is not the case for this particular "virus" alert.
>
> If you encounter this message being distributed on any mailing lists, simply
> ignore it or send a follow-up message stating that this is a false rumor.
>
> Karyn Pichnarczyk
> CIAC Team
> ciac@llnl.gov