Virus Warning

[Bruce Appelbaum]

     Enough with this bogus virus warning.  The FCC has never and does 
     _not_ issue virus warnings.  It is not possible to spread a virus by 
     opening and reading e-mail.  
     
     The virus warnings are the electronic version of a chain letter.


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Virus Warning
Author:  David Andignac <davida at caps.com> at Internet
Date:    3/19/96 9:07 AM


       I just got this from my inter office e-mail. Thought it might by of
interest to fellow Pynchon-dedicated Netizens.
     
   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 ON LINE 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, 
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.
     
         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 email  message with  the  
subject  line reading "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 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  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! It could   save them a lot of time and money.
                               E N D  O F  N O T E
     
David A.