::: Area #0 (Private mail)
Message: #34126 (Read 1 time, has 0 replies, 2870 bytes)
Date   : Wed Aug 23 16:15:17 2000
From   : editorial@epemag.wimborne.co.uk
Message-ID: <3nStDKAHg4o5EwY$@epemag.wimborne.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Can E-Mails Carry Viruses?

We got a 'self executing' virus of this type - it trusted the user to
delete all the files on his hard disk then send on the email!

We have copied your email to Barry Fox.

In message <000822155124@arcade.demon.co.uk>, Jonathan Graham Harston
<jgh@arcade.demon.co.uk> writes
>Barry Fox's article in the September issue raised the question of if a
>virus can hide in plain text emails.  He is essentially correct in saying
>that a computer-executable program cannot be transmitted through a
>text-only email.  However, viruses are more than just computer programs.
>
>A virus is an entity that uses it's host to replicate itself. If a text
>email simply says "Copy this email to everybody you know", it is a virus.
>It utilises the human user as the host to replicate itself.  In 1994 an
>email virus 'Good Times' infected thousands of people's email system, as
>detailed in http://www.mdfsnet.f9.co.uk/Docs/Comp/Viruses/GoodTimes.  It
>was essentially a chain letter containing a hoax warning about a virus,
>recommending that the reader email it on to all their friends.  As Clay
>Skirky on alt.folklore.urban put it: "... It works by finding hosts with
>defective parsing apparatus which prevents them from understanding that a
>piece of email which says there is an email virus and then asking them to
>remail the message to all their friends is the virus itself."
>

--
Mike Kenward
Editor
Everyday Practical Electronics/ETI
Wimborne Publishing Ltd
Allen House
East Borough
Wimborne
Dorset BH21 1PF
UK

Tel: 01202 881749
Fax: 01202 841692

www.epemag.wimborne.co.uk
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