Good Times

[M Suresh]

The below is a rumour floating around for more than a year. Pay no
attention to it.

Good Times :-),
Suresh.

> Hi everyone,
>
> Attached is a Virus alert warning I've got from our Company internal
> network, which I think is worth distributing to you.
>
> Subject:  Virus Alert
>
>      IMPORTANT MESSAGE!
>
>      Subject: FW: Extremely Destructive Virus (fwd)
>
>      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
> gbowersIumms_itg.ab.umd.edu
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> e-mail:     wolfgang-bernard at capmedia.fr
>
> NLP-Essentiel:     http://www.capmedia.fr/nlp/
>