VIRUS WARNING

John K. Taber jktaber at dhc.net
Mon Feb 22 16:01:07 PST 1999


Somebody wrote:
> If you receive an email titled "It Takes Guts to Say 'Jesus'" DO NOT open
it.
> It will erase everything on your hard drive. Forward this letter out to
as many
> people as you can. This is a new, very malicious virus and not many
people know
> about it. This information was announced
> yesterday morning from IBM;

Bullshit. There are many many hoax messages circulating purporting to warn about non-existant viruses. This is one of them.

It has all the hallmarks of a hoax. It attributes to email what it cannot do (it cannot execute a program). It urges everybody to spread the word. Computer security gurus aver that this panicky tale-telling is itself a virus. And it claims that some presumably reputable organization is the source of the warning.

Check out the panicky message first in comp.risks, ask in one of the security newsgroups, before passing on the hoax yourself.

-- Homines id quod volunt credunt.



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