When it comes to forwarded e-mails warning of computer viruses, there are more sheep in wolves’ clothing Rob Rosenberger, editor of Vmyths.com, said the phenomena of computer virus hoaxes can be traced back to the classic chemistry of any hoax.
“Myths breed fear, fear breeds hysteria and hysteria breeds hoaxes,” he said.
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Rosenberger’s Web site offers a comprehensive A-Z list of popular virus hoaxes, tackling persistent virus myths, and dispelling misconceptions about real computer viruses. With a searchable database using key words, and an alphabetical listing, the biggest selling point of Vmyths is that there is no selling point. Whereas some virus information sites are pedaling anti-virus software, Vmyths generates revenue via ad sales by RI Soft Systems, Inc., as an independent effort without influence over editorial content. Text on the site even vows that the organization will never accept paid advertisements for computer security products or services.
Rosenberger recently spoke about the history of computer virus hoaxes during ITEC, a technology conference that took place earlier this month at the Rhode Island Convention Center. Billed as “stand-up comedy for computer nerds,” the editor said the root of most of these hoaxes is what Rosenberger calls “false authority syndrome” (FAS).
People with FAS claim to speak with authority about computer viruses but have little or no genuine expertise. Rosenberger said he has encountered many people who feel competent to discuss viruses because of their job titles, their expertise in another computer field, or simply because they know how to use a computer. The field is so young, he said, that there are not many experts, which is why the false virus warnings end up in Internet users inboxes all too often.
Rosenberger said computer virus hoaxes did not really begin until the late 1980s, because until then there were not enough everyday users of the Internet to perpetuate hoaxes. Viruses were simply myths and legends during those early days, he said.
One of the first well-known hoaxes Rosenberger cited was the “Gulf War” virus hoax. The hoax originated when U.S. News and World Report ran a story in 1992 claiming the U.S. National Security Agency intercepted Iraq-bound printers just before the Gulf War and placed virus-infected software in the units so any time an Iraqi technician opened a window, all information would vanish. However, InfoWorld magazine had published a similar story the year before as an April Fool’s joke. Although the magazine stands by the story, it ran a clarification saying it could not confirm the virus was successful. Rosenberger said the story was a hoax because variations on the theme usually carry no credibility, no matter how highly placed the source.
In 1994, the “Good Times” virus hoax was the first widely successful forwarded hoax, where a user reads of a virus and forwards the warning to all his or her friends. The hoax crashed many corporate and academic e-mail servers throughout 1995 as frightened users would forward the alert to “all,” prompting others to hit the “reply to all” button with questions or comments.
Rosenberger noted that the hoax alert warned that your computer would get infected if you read the words ‘Good Times’ with your eyeballs, as ridiculous as that possibility is. Ironically, users often included the phrase ‘Good Times’ in the subject line of their own warning messages about the virus. In some cases, system administrators forwarded the alert to everyone, then sent another e-mail a few minutes later with ‘Good Times’ in the subject line.
“If you opened it, you’d find a stern lecture about the danger of opening emails with ‘Good Times’ in the subject line,” said Rosenberger.
Over the next few years the ‘Good Times” virus was copied so frequently and closely said Rosenberger, that were it any other medium it would be mass plagiarism.
Virus hoaxes evolved in the late 1990s so as users would receive e-mails that appeared to be from themselves. The first of these, dubbed ‘Naughty Robot’ boasted of being an “Internet spider that crawls into your server through a tiny hole in the World Wide Web.”
The hoax went on to claim ‘Naughty Robot’ captured the user’s credit card numbers, home phone number, physical address, and other personal information. And warned users to alert authorities.
The users would not only alert authorities, they would send first-person account warnings to other users, which turned into chain letters, although the ‘Naughty Robot’ didn’t actually have any of this information– it was a hoax.
“Hoaxes cost money,” said Rosenberger in summary. “Customers call up to eradicate hoax viruses, employees waste time when they span the hoax alerts to everybody in the company, who in turn waste time, and sometimes people will even reformat their entire drive.”
Although there is no foolproof way to spot a hoax, Rosenberger said commonsense is the best defense. He also cautioned Internet viewers not to forward the alerts and subscribe to the hysteria.
“As far as I’m concerned virus alerts are chain letters and chain letters are illegal,” said Rosenberger. “Those are the best four words I’ve seen in a legal document. Chain letters are illegal.”
