Information Services - Computer Viruses

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Information Services would like to offer the following informational pages about computer viruses and hoaxes.

Viruses cannot be transmitted as a simple email message. That is, your computer cannot become infected by reading an email message. It can, however, be infected if you open an infected attachment to the email message.

There are other email hoaxes which have nothing to do with viruses. For example, there's an email message in circulation that claims to be from Bill Gates himself and says, basically, "Send this to everyone you know! We at Microsoft are testing a new email tracking system. If this message reaches 1,000 people, everyone on the list will receive $1,000 and a copy of Windows98 at my expense." This is just one of the many email hoaxes in circulation at the moment. If you get a message asking you to forward it to "as many people as you know" or "10 people within the next 24 hours" or anything along those lines, please just delete the message. Most of the time, if they promise anything spectacular, they're just hoaxes perpetrated by small minds who think it would be fun to see how much they can panic users of the Internet.

Following are some web sites that contain information about which viruses are real and which are hoaxes. There is also information about other hoaxes traveling the waves of the Internet on the sites listed below. Hopefully they will help you determine whether or not any warnings or other spam you receive are legitimate.

Computer Virus Myths home page
CIAC Security Web Site
NCSA Anti-Virus Information
Symantec - Virus Hoaxes

If you have any questions, concerns or suggestions, please feel free to email the IS Helpdesk .