Re: [Epic] [Fwd: E-Mail Virus Warning]

From: nethol <nethol_at_...>
Date: Thu, 13 Feb 1997 11:51:30 +0200

> From: lojeck <lojeck_at_...>
> To: space-marine_at_...
> Subject: Re: [Epic] [Fwd: E-Mail Virus Warning]
> Date: 13 �ubat 1997 03:24
>
> once again, this is bullshit. you cannot activate a virus by reading an
> email, no virus exists (with the exception of the microsoft macro ones)
> that can affect multiple operating systems, and all the other expletive
> declarations that I want to make. the email itself is a virus, since it
> replicates, wastes space and bandwidth and time, and makes people real
> pissed off...
>
> have a nice day! ;-)
>
>
> Brian Lojeck
> lojeck_at_...
>
Not so. First, you don't need a virus that can run on multiple operating
systems since the great majority of the receiving ends are PC's and PC
networks. You just devise one that can work under DOS and has a header
section that enables it to load itself under Windows/OS2 variants.
Secondly, you *can* activate a virus by reading your mail. The simplest
case would be to include an exe file in the attachment. Further, the
message body itself *can* carry an executable set of instructions or a
trigger to them as well. That's how your browser crashes from time to time
(by disinterpreting some of the data in a web page that is being opened -
which is not fundamentally different than viewing your mail).

S. Birol Akmeric

nethol_at_...
Received on Thu Feb 13 1997 - 09:51:30 UTC