Internet Virus

[demetris.a.gaines at ceswa-im-i.mail.usace.army.mil]

01/ou=CESWA-IM-I/s=GAINES/g=DEMETRIS/i=A/@MHS>#1/1
approved: Usenet at ux1.cso.uiuc.edu
organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
reply-to: grassu-list at max.cecer.army.mil
newsgroups: info.grass.user
originator: daemon at ux1.cso.uiuc.edu


There is a computer virus that is being sent across the Internet.  If
you receive an e-mail message with the subject line "Good Times", DO
NOT read the message, DELETE it immediately.  Please read the
messages below.

Some miscreant is sending e-mail 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--I
have.

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
unparalleled 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  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 text 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 proceed to 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.