Re: FW: Internet Virus

[Bill Draeger <triliad@earthlink.net>]

PAYNTER_at_HALIFAX1@ccmail.worldcom.com wrote:
> 
>      I received this today, and thought it worth passing along
> 
>      Clarke
> 
> ______________________________ Forward Header __________________________________
> Subject: FW: Internet Virus
> Author:  Rhenda Paynter <rpaynter@techdata.com> at Internet
> Date:    7/25/96 6:35 PM
> 
> BEWARE!!!
>  ----------
> From: Steven Longo
> To: -TD Canada All Employees
> Subject: Internet Virus
> Date: Thursday, July 25, 1996 6:24PM
> 
> There is a 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"
> >nationwide, if you get anything like this, DON'T DOWN LOAD 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.
> >
> >             WARNING!!!!!!!  INTERNET VIRUS
> >
> >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 ON LINE that
> > is
> >unparalleled in its destructive capability. 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 email 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.  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 text email message
> >with the subject line reading "Good Times". Avoiding infection is easy
> >once the file has been received simply by 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 email address is contained in a receive-mail file or a
> >sent-mail file, if it can find one. It will then proceed to trash the
> >computer it is running on.
> >
> > The bottom line 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.
> >     Could you pass this along to your global mailing list as well?
> >
> >  George H. Bowers
> >  Vice President for Information Systems University of Maryland Medical
> >  System 410-328-2579  (fax)410-328-0572
> >gbowers@umms_itg.ab.umd.edu"

Is this still going around? Four months ago (after severaly such
internal company e-mail warnings, including one from a Vice President)
my company's IT department delcared it to be a hoax. Has anyone seen or,
better yet, been bitten by this file called "Good Times"? Supposedly the
latest virus is carried on a file called "PKZ300.EXE" or "PKZ300.ZIP".
This warning has been sanctioned by my company's IT department, but I
have yet to come across anyone offering it. Supposedly, you are to
download it as being the latest PKUNZIP utility and then kiss your hard
drive goodbye.