Virus Alert!

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     From Delaney@gsg.eds.com Thu Apr 20 10:09:23 1995Subject: Read this 
     now! Compu
     ter Virus - Internet
     Priority: High
     
     FYI!!  Please give widest dissemination possible!!
     ** High Priority **
     PLEASE READ THIS CAREFULLY!
     The following notice came across my internet connect this morning 
     and
     will be released by DOE-HQ today, although it may be too late in some 
     cases.
     
     "There is a new computer virus that is being sent across the 
     Internet.
     If you receive an email message with the subject line "Good 
     Times,"
     DO NOT read the message. DELETE it immediately.  Please read the 
     messages below.
     
     Some miscreant is sending email under the title "good times"
     nation-wide.  If you get anything like this, DON'T DOWNLOAD THE FILE! 
     It has a virus that rewrites your hard drive, obliterating anything on 
     it.  Please be careful and forward this mail to anyone you care about.
     
     Thought you might like to know...
     
     The FCC released a warning last Wednesday concerning
     a matter of major importance to any regular user of the Internet. 
     Apparently, a new computer virus has been engineered by a user of 
     America Online that is unparalled in its destructive capability. 
     Other, more well-known viruses such as Stoned, Airwolf, and 
     Michaelangelo pale in comparison to the prospects of this newest 
     creation by a warped mentality.
     
     What makes this virus so terrifying, said the FCC, is the fact 
     that no     program needs to be exchanged for a new computer to be 
     infected.  It can be spread through the existing e-mail systems of the 
     InterNet.   Once a computer is infected, one of several things can 
     happen.  If the computer contains a hard drive, that will most likely 
     be destroyed. If the program is not stopped, the computer's processor 
     will be placed in an nth-complexity infinite binary loop, which can 
     severely damage the processor if left running that way too long.  
     Unfortunately, most  novice computer users will not realize what is 
     happening until it is far too late.
     
     Luckily, there is one sure means of detecting what is now known 
     as the "Good Times" virus.  It always travels to new computers the 
     same way in a test e-mail message with the subject line reading simply 
     "Good Times."
     
     Avoiding infection is easy once the file has been received - not 
     reading it. The act of loading the file into the mail server's 
     ASCII buffer causes the "Good Times" mainline program to
     initialize and execute.  The program is highly intelligent - it 
     will  send copies of itself to everyone whose e-mail address is 
     contained in a received-mail file or a sent-mail file, if it can find 
     one.  It will then trash the computer it is running on.
     
     The bottom line here is - if you receive a file with the subject 
     line  "Good Times," delete it immediately!  Do not read it!  Rest 
     assured that whoever's name was on the "From:" line was surely struck 
     by the virus.
     
     Warn your friends and local system users of this newest threat to 
     the InterNet!  It could save them a lot of time and money."
     
     Please pass this on...especially to anyone you know that uses 
     "America Online" regularly.