This appears to be a mutation of the "Win a holiday" virus hoax. The subject line of the "virused mail" reminds me of a Mark Twain quote: "A boy carrying a cat is learning something he can learn no other way". Somehow I think giving a cat a colonic is likely to be just as "educational".
Robert (Baloo) Dunehew
[email protected]
Alpha Quadrant Institute of Technology http://www.geocities.com/area51/shire/8641
Starfleet Military Reserves http://members.tripod.com/~SMR4124/index.html
Come Hither and Yawn... http://members.tripod.com/~Bob_Baloo/index.htm
BRENT GRIFFITH wrote:
Hey Robert-I received this e-mail and thought you would be the person to ask. What about it? Ever heard of it or is it another hoax? I personally have never heard of the 'cat colonic..' but then I lead a sheltered life!! I enjoy the e-mails from you. Thought the web-sites were kinds cool. Does that make me a sicko?
Darla Dunehew Griffith @ [email protected]
Subject: IBM VIRUS ALERT Incase you recieve an email titled "How to Give a Cat a Colonic" DO NOT OPEN IT. iT WILL ERASE EVERYTHING ON YOUR HARD DRIVE.
The above all-caps warning is a common element of virus hoaxes. All hoax viruses cause catastrophic failure of some sort (in theory, since they're hoaxes, they really don't do anything).
Forward this to everyone you can.
Yeah, sure. Clog your server's email function so the virus can't find it's way through the traffic.
It's a very malicious virus and not many people know about it.
Well, I suppose it is malicious to send bogus warnings to people in the hope of panicking them...? And of course, if it doesn't exist, few people are likely to know of it either, huh?
This was announced by IBM. This is a very dangerous virus and there is no remedy for it at this time. Please take precautionary measures and forward this ASAP
Ja, sure, youbetcha! First, IBM is not in the business of issuing virus warnings. Even if they did discover a new virus, they would simply call in legitimate virus experts who would call in the authorities (like CIAC). CIAC would then issue a warning. An official CIAC warning will give technical details (not just technical-sounding details) about how the virus operated and how to counter it (no virus is unstoppable. Most are very poorly written code.) They would also provide a digital signature encoded by a PGP key. It's virtually impossible to forge a digital signature (unless you've got a super computer and a decade of spare time).
Good resources for checking these things out are :
The CIAC web site at http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/ and
the Computer Virus Myths web site at [url]http://kumite.com/myths/ [/url]
Check them out when you have time to spare (warning: CVM is more entertaining than CIAC. CIAC can be pretty dry, but the hoax warnings & commentary are kind of funny).