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FW: Internet Virus

     I received this today, and thought it worth passing along
     
     Clarke


______________________________ Forward Header __________________________________
Subject: FW: Internet Virus
Author:  Rhenda Paynter <[email protected]> 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
>[email protected]"