Theos-Talk Archives (December 1999 Message tl00226)

>      I am not pointing fingers!!!  At no time did I say the folks at
NVision are
> the ones who created the program, they are just the ones distributing
it and,
> apparently, don't get their programs from a reliable source.  They may
have been
> unwittingly distributing the virus just like the person who sent it to
you.
> Please do not e-mail NVision and say, "Jeff said you made a virus".

Would be a good idea not to - since it isn't a virus -its a virus
hoax... almost a tradition around Christmas now. Don't know what kind of
computer the "class project" in your email used ... but to simply load
that program, turn the date over, and instantly conclude that its that
program that caused to crash is not exactly the way one tests things.

There are - according to a number of industry estimates - far more virus
*hoaxes* than there are actual viruses in the world. They're much easier
to create (one just sends an email, instead of having to do any
programming) and to some degree the same thing gets accomplished ... the
person sees themselves all over the internet. (The most famous of the
hoaxes is the infamous "Good Times" hoax ... still circulates ever few
months or so ... has generated hundreds of thousands of emails - people
get the warning, freak out, send it to all their friends ...). My advice
to the list (in case anyone cares <g>) is, when you get a virus warning
from a friend, go to the IBM website (IBM runs the most sophisticated
virus research center in the world - its almost the cyber equivalent of
the Centers for Disease Control), or go to the Symantec site (Symantec
makes Norton Utilities, and anti-virus software) ... the keep a
continually updated list of both viruses and hoaxes ...  in this
particular case, go to

<http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/y2kgame.hoax.html>

to read the hoax description. -JRC