Re: VIRUS ON THE INTERNET

From: John Cooke <John.Cooke@parallax.co.uk>

Date: Tue, 20 Aug 1996 00:00:00 +0000

Jonathan Burt wrote:
>
> Hi!
>
> In article <TbqcWCAhn0FyEw6E@gamenet.demon.co.uk>,
> wells@gamenet.demon.co.uk writes
> >Not sure if there's anything in this - I picked it up in another
> >newsgroup, but my thoughts were with you guys... gee, ain't that nice.
>
> >"Good Times"? Why do these morons always have to have a sick sense of
> >humour as well?
>
> Here it comes again! :(
>
> There is *no* Good Times virus that trashes your hard disk and launches
> your CPU into an nth-complexity binary loop when you read mail with
> "Good Times" in the Subject: field.
>

Agreed, there is no 'Good Times' virus (other than the Human Wet-Ware
variety which causes people to continually spread the news). However
one should be aware of the potential destructiveness of Microsoft's
ActiveX controls which can be embedded within Web Pages. I have seen
a control which has been written to prove the point. When you
download the web page in Internet Explorer (on a Windows machine)
after a short time it will re-boot your machine.

It doesn't do any damage, but it does illustrates the potential.

I don't have the URL on hand (found it on a Java site - obviously
highlighting the security difference between ActiveX and Java).
If anyone wants it, mail me and I'll hunt it down again.

- John

References

VIRUS ON THE INTERNET
<wells@gamenet.demon.co.uk>
Sun, 18 Aug 1996 00:00:00 +0000
Re: VIRUS ON THE INTERNET
Jonathan Burt <jonathan@jaburt.demon.co.uk>
Mon, 19 Aug 1996 00:00:00 +0000