Re: Virus

From: J. Michael New (MICHAEL.NEW@nrc.ca)
Date: Fri Aug 09 1996 - 16:14:05 EEST


Mark Littlewood reveals:
>
> Apparently two very nasty viruses have been posted around and about. They are
> called "PKZip300" and "Good Times". If you receive these files, they should be
> thrown away immediately. If you open the files, they will do nasty things to
> your computer.
>
>

The Good Times virus is a hoax which has been travelling around the
net since November 1994. I must have heard this warning 20 times
or more...

The only way in which Good Times is a virus is that its legend continues,
and someone with good intentions who doesn't know any better invariably
mails off a warning about it to some mailing list which has seen the
warning many times before. This kind of "virus" is also known as a
meme.

The PKZip300 one was real, but I believe it is not being spread anymore.
Still, PKWare is not going to release any PKZip version numbered 3.0,
so it remains one to avoid. If it is still out there.

For more information, check out http://www.bocklabs.wisc.edu/~janda/acv_faq.html
and ftp://members.aol.com/macfaq/good-times-virus-hoax-faq.txt

And before posting these things to hundreds or even thousands of
people, it's a good idea to talk to your sys admin about it first.

Wishing you all some real Good Times this weekend,

Mike
----------------------------- _/ /\/\ /\/ ----------------------------
J. Michael New Michael.New@NRC.Ca
Integrated Manufacturing Technologies Institute (613)991-4371
National Research Council of Canada home: (613)230-7783
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