Mail Viruses - True or false? ("J OIN THE CREW" message)

[TMGB]

There must be something to this email virus thing.  I'm using Netscape
Messenger as my email client which allows me to group subject headings
together.  As soon as it brought up the subject MailViruses ..., there was a
rapid mitosis of subject headings Re: MailViruses...  While searching for a
cure I found this wonderful anti-emailvirus utility, I've heard it refered
to as a filter before.  You just tell it to delete email that has MailVirus
in the subject heading.  Does it get any better than this? Sort of like if a
tree falls in a forest and nobody is there, does it make a sound is the
backbone of this utility.  If you get rid of the email virus before it can
cause damage, was it really there?

mtcw
Thomas

PS.  On the serious side, www.PCWORLD.com has a weekly virus newsletter sent
via email with tips.  I happen to find the Junkie virus on a patron's floppy
the week that it was in the PCWORLD email.  F-Prot for win95 pick it up
before it could do any damage to a public patron PC.  We have all our public
PCs set up for automatic virus removal if one is detected on a floppy.

Jeremiah Cruit-Salzberg wrote:

> I keep seeing these don't open this or that message or your computer
> will spontaneously melt or whatever.  What I have always told everyone
> is that mail messages are in ASCII (or HTML) and that they can't hurt.
> That the only way you can be damaged by email is through attachments and
> that you should never open any you receive (except from friends and only
> after virus scanning).  I do know that you can set the option in many
> mail programs to automatically open attachments, now this is the only
> way that I could imagine an email damaging your system just by opening
> it and so I tell everyone to make sure that is not checked.
>
> If anyone knows of an email that can kill - not second hand or hearsay -
> and can forward a copy to me, I would love to be disproved.  Or if you
> can tell me how I might be wrong I would like to know so I can inform my
> customers appropriately.  I'm not sure if you could possibly embed a
> CGI, VBscript or Javascript that could wipe your computer when you
> opened it.
>
> By the by, here is the most recent message that 20 of my customers
> forwarded me and wanted to know what sorts of measures I was going to
> take to make sure we were safe:
>
>         >    Subject:   virus warning
>         >
>         >    Date: Thursday, Fe bruary 12, 1998 8:08
>         >
>         >    If you receive an email titled "J OIN THE CREW" DO NOT OPEN
> IT.  IT
>         >    WILL ERASE EVERYTHING ON YOUR HARD DR IVE.  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; please share it with everyone
> that
>         >    might access the internet.  Once again, pass this along to
> EVERYONE
>         >    in your address book so that this may be stopped.   Also,
> do not
>         >    open or even look at any mail that says "RETURNED OR UNABL
> E TO
>         >    DELIVERY."  This virus will attach itself to your computer
>
>         >    components and render them useless.  Immediately delete any
> mail
>         >    items that say this.  AOL has said that this is a very
> dangerous
>         >    virus and that there is NO remedy for it at this time.
> Please
>         >    practice  cautionary measures and forward this to all your
> online
>         >    friends ASAP.
>
> ____
>        Jeremiah Cruit-Salzberg
>        Acting WAN Manager
>        Seattle Public Library
>        jeremiah at spl.org



--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thomas McMillan Grant Bennett           Appalachian State University
Computer Consultant II                  University Library
bennettt at am.appstate.edu
http://www.library.appstate.edu/admin/
Voice:  704 262 2795
FAX:    704 262 3001

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