In computer news this week, 05/28/2002

In computer news this week, 11/18/2002

What can cause more damage than a new computer virus?

A computer virus hoax....

Back in May I did a show on computer virus hoaxes. They seem to be increasing, so let's review this area again.

The latest threats on the internet are emails from someone you may or may not know telling you that you have a file on your computer which was placed there by a virus and you need to delete it from your computer before it does damage. This might be someone you know from your address book, or it might be someone with an impressive sounding title or company email address. It might even be from someone you don't know, but it still makes you nervous.

Some of these emails even say "This virus is not found by McAfee, Norton, or any other AntiVirus program."

Usually any email like this recently is a hoax, and deleting the file mentioned may do serious damage to your computer - maybe even more than a virus may do.

Here's 2 recent examples of these virus hoax emails.

One is the jdbgmgr.exe hoax- and gives you extensive instructions on how to delete this file - and tells you to email everybody in your entire email addressbook to do the same thing. If you search for this filename - it will show up very quickly - and you will see it does have a very strange looking icon - a bear - but don't delete it.

Another hoax from months ago mentioned a file name sulfnbk.exe which also is a legitimate windows file that manages long file names. This file has an even weirder looking icon.

These hoaxes prey on people's computer illiteracy, and on the increasing size of operating system and program software. New computers today can come with 40,000 or more files on them out of the box. How can you keep track of what's a valid file and what's not?

Hoaxes cost money. It's estimated that hoaxes can cost even more than a genuine virus incident. After all, no anti-virus program will detect hoaxes because they aren't viruses. Some people and companies panic when they receive a hoax virus warning and assume the worst - making the situation much worse.

The amount of panic email that a typical hoax can generate is also a burden on the internet. If you email a virus hoax message to everyone in your address book - say 100 people - and then they email everyone in their address books - that's maybe ten thousand emails! And if this cycle repeats - it's up in the millions!

You can prevent hoaxes from spreading

If you receive an email that you suspect is a virus hoax - don't panic. Search on any search engine for the key words virus hoaxes, or go to

www.virushoax.com

www.sophos.com

www.urbanlegends.com

or go to www.microsoft.com particularly when it's about a Microsoft file.

If you receive a virus hoax from an individual, I feel you should email the person back and make them aware that they're crying wolf. My experience has been that the people who fall for and send these hoax emails are either internet and computer newbies, computer expert wanna-be's, or hackers hoping to cause problems.

I also feel that companies have a liability if a virus hoax is circulated by someone with a company email address. Any company should have a policy on virus hoaxes, and only authorized people should send emails. Your company should consider circulating a policy on virus hoaxes to your staff. If you receive a virus hoax from someone with a company email address - go the company website and complain.

There are thousands of real viruses out there which you need to protect yourself from, and virus hoaxes are becoming another part of the problem.

For Raw Bytes, This is Frank Delaney

POB 222 Spangle, Wa 99031 (509)245-3736 624-7230