Yet another computer virus warning hoax last night, and from a friend who should have known better. This one was the Olympic Torch hoax, about an email attachment that threatens to destroy your C drive.
Here’s the mail:
Subject: Warning for Most Dangerous VIRUS
> PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND
> CONTACTS:
> You should be alert during the next days:
> Do not open any message with an attached file called “Invitation”
> regardless of who sent it, It is a virus that opens an Olympic Torch
> which “burns” the whole hard disc C of your computer.
> This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in
> his/her contact list, that is why you should send this e-mail to
> all your contacts. It is better to
> receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it.
> If you receive a mail called “invitation”, though sent by a friend, do not
> open it and shut down your computer immediately This is the
> worst virus announced by CNN, it has been classified by Microsoft as the
> most destructive virus ever.
> This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet
> for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero
> Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept
> SEND THIS E-MAIL TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW ,
> COPY THIS E-MAIL AND SEND! IT TO YOUR FRIENDS
> AND REMEMBER: IF YOU SEND IT TO THEM, YOU WILL BENEFIT ALL OF US
Of course this is rubbish. But that’s hardly the point. The question is, why is that even the most obviously idiotic computer virus warning message makes us abandon all common sense?
I suspect it’s primarily because computers terrify most of us, simply because we don’t understand — or fully understand — how they do the things they do. With a PC, we don’t even understand why they do certain things. With a Microsoft product, that’s at least a valid concern. Microsoft products are signed, sealed and sold on a need-to-know basis. They constantly do things in the background. Sometimes these are jolly good things. More often, it’s something positively evil. Anyone who’s had an inexplicable BSOD or a crazy start-up problem or one of those mad Microsoft error message boxes (full of totally unhelpful information) knows this.
But our fear also comes from our now near-complete dependence on computers. The least hint of threat to the computer is a threat to our existence and civilization generally. No wonder we’re in a tailspin.
Every computer virus warning makes us suspend disbelief. Ordinarily, we Google anything and everything, even each other. Yet we never bother to Google a virus warning. We just kick it along, pushing it along its trajectory to urban legend status. Take the present email. A Google search for:
+virus +invitation +"olympic torch"
yields 68,700 hits. Of these, the top 10 or so all report this as being a complete hoax.
One look at the mail should have made it clear that it’s bogus. What’s the zero sector on the hard drive? Presumably, the boot sector. And what good is it shutting down the computer? How will that help the virus to go away? You’ve got to start it some time, yes, to get rid of the danged thing?
A virus is, by definition, software. It simply cannot ‘burn’ (or fry, boil, steam, blanche, roast, poach, bake, grill, sear, cremate, singe or even warm up) your hard drive, which is a physical, mechanical thingy that goes whirr-whirr-whirr. A burn will happen if your reverse the power supply cable and fire it up. That can’t happen with a virus.
At worst, the virus might wipe out data, but so what? You’ll be adding more in no time at all. In fact, you’ll probably be relieved to rid yourself of the junk you knew you ought to toss but somehow just couldn’t stop the tremble in your finger over the delete key. This is, of course, a known pathology now, called the DKNY (Delete Key? Not Yet) syndrome.
So why panic? What’s the worst that’s going to happen if it is real and your data dies? No one’s going to jail, or losing their life, liberty or even the after-dinner ice-cream (now that would be a total disaster).
It’s best to follow the general mantras: Just don’t open any attachment from anyone you don’t know. Use a good virus scanner that checks your incoming mail. Use a spyware killer (I love the lavasoft product line). You don’t let every klutz waltz in through your front door and lie down on your couch. So why let in virus-encrusted mail?
For much higher safety, I strongly recommend Mailwasher Pro from Firetrust. I’ve written about this before. It’s a really nifty utility: it scans any number of mailboxes, auto detects if it’s spam or virus, let’s you delete off the server and ensures your inbox is nice and clean, and only filled with junk from real friends.
Here are some links to sites confirming the hoax-status of this virus warning
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