E-mail virus warnings spread as fast as the viruses themselves but are often only hoaxes
Rupert Neethling Alarm at the prospect of a new computer virus is both healthy and justified. But it seems that many users have yet to discover that not all virus warnings are true. Ironically, e-mail hoaxes posing as virus warnings tend to spread just as real viruses do, constantly being forwarded in an exponentially growing panic-fest that overburdens e-mail systems and often brings networks to their knees. The destructiveness of e-mail hoaxes was again brought home to many system administrators during the second half of 1999 and the first few months of 2000 when a false warning about a cellphone virus spread like wildfire. To this day there is still widespread confusion on the topic as the message continues to be forwarded by well-meaning but poorly-informed users. The introduction of the hoax message reads: OVirus Planet! To those who are using handphone!! Dear all mobile phoneOs owners, attention!!! Now there is a virus on mobile phone system.O (The errors are reproduced faithfully.)
The fact that this was a blatant hoax was clear to those who understood that cellphones by themselves, not containing any executable files or easily reprogrammable memory, could not be infected by a transmitted virus.
Other e-mail scams concerning cellphones have also been doing the rounds the most famous probably being the invitations, supposedly from Nokia and Ericsson respectively, to forward an e-mail message a specified number of times in order to qualify for a free cellphone. Today, of course, the increasing convergence between new WAP (wireless access protocol) enabled cellphones, handheld computers and their more virus- prone desktop cousins is helping to add grist to the rumour mill. And to make the rumours more convincing, they are beginning to contain elements of truth: one of the worst cellphone scares to date was the recent VBS/Timofonica virus, which spread via Windows computers with Microsoft Outlook and forced infected computers to send SMS messages to random cellphones.
In addition, anti-virus software vendors are taking matters seriously enough to start developing safeguards against possible WAP viruses. What, then, is the ordinary user to do when confronted with a new virus warning, whether about cellphones or otherwise? Most experts say the same thing: do not succumb to a knee-jerk reaction. Do not forward the warning to everyone in your address book. If youOre on a network and you feel itOs justified, pass it on to your information technology department. ItOs their job to take the appropriate measures. The frenzied forwarding of Ourgent warningsO almost always does more harm than good.
If you receive a message and youOd like to check whether itOs a hoax before you share it with friends and colleagues, visit websites such as Internet ScamBusters (www.scam busters.org), F-Secure (www.datafel lows.com/news/hoax/) or the Symantec AntiVirus Research Centre (www.sarc.com/avcenter/hoax.html). You can also go to your antivirus software vendorOs website and, if relevant, your cellphone service providerOs site. After all, itOs embarrassing to make a fool of oneself just because one fell for a misspelt missive from some troubled individual with nothing better to do.