[Regia-NA] Possible virus warnings and other Internet Hoaxes

[list-regia-na@lig.net]

Hi all,
Please forgive the cross posting.  I wrote this up for
my job a week or so ago after a blizzard of well
intentioned internet hoaxes made the rounds.

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We have all reaceived emails describing scary but
improbable hazards.  Some of them describe computer
viruses that will do everything from erase your hard
disk immediately to putting cool-aid in your fish tank.
 Some describe real world events which are generally
long standing urban legends dressed up with the
contemporary trimmings of gangs or terrorists.

Sometimes these hoaxes are an invitation to get in on
some sort of email promotion by Microsoft, AOL or
Disney.  Whether they are too good to be true, or too
scary to imagine, most of these emails are hoaxes and
urban legends in their own right.

While you might think you are helping your friends by
spreading the word, you are unwittingly facilitating a
kind of 'social engineering' email virus that is just
as perfidious as chain letters.  This one differs from
the postal mail variety only in that it requires your
employer (or Internet Service Provider) to pay the
virtual postage to send the mail.

If you are concerned about the validity of email
warnings or offers you receive there are a few websites
that can help you determine their legitimacy.

Computer viruses are not generally announced by IBM or
Microsoft.  There are several organizations whose
business it is to investigate computer security threats
and who do make such announcements.  The first computer
security incident response team was the CERT
Coordination center at Carnegie Mellon University.
www.cert.org
They have detailed information on computer viruses here:
http://www.cert.org/other_sources/viruses.html

You can also find information about computer viruses at
Symantec's website:
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/

Another well known source is McAfee Security:
http://www.mcafee.com/anti-virus/default.asp

For more real world threats, or offers that are too
good to be true, you can investigate them at several
websites devoted to urban legends, such as:

http://www.urbanlegends.com/

and:

http://www.snopes.com/

If you have passed on an email that turned out to be an
urban legend, thanks for thinking of your friends, we
know you meant well.  But next time, do a little home
work, discovering if something is real or not first
could save your friends a fright!