The first Internet virus hoax appeared in 1988. Emails were sent out with the subject line stating that a Really Nasty Virus was on its way. The idea of that hoax was laughable and most users realized it wasn’t true, but the same can’t be said of some later virus hoaxes that spread like wildfire around the internet. The History of Virus Hoaxes details the first virus from the late 1980s and Virus Alert discusses some hoaxes used in later days.
In 1994, the Good Times Virus Hoax managed to scare quite a bit of people. The worst thing is that this same hoax is still floating around today, often under the same name. Users were told to delete any email that had this name or a variation in the subject heading. The entry at Wikipedia describes this virus and others similar to it.
The Deeyenda virus was a hoax similar to Good Times. Supposedly opening an infected email caused the virus to attach itself to the user’s address list and it would also cause destruction to the hard drive. The virus never appeared and there’s no evidence that it ever existed. Deeyenda Virus Hoax describes the virus more in depth.
Another example is the PKZ300 warning. According to the emails that circulated, this Trojan virus could cause serious damage. The only problem was that the Trojan didn’t exist. That changed a few years later when the Trojan virus actually did begin appearing, especially in files that included the PKZ300 name. Trend Micro lists a history of this virus and Sophos discusses how it can be spread by users.
The hoax surrounding Ghost.exe was started by a confused user. This free screen saver shows Halloween themes, including a flying ghost. A user saw the unexpected ghost and turned it in as a Trojan virus and the hoax spread. Fortunately there’s nothing wrong with the program, but a full history is discussed at New Carjacking Scheme as well as by Ghost Warning.
The Irina virus hoax started as an unusual advertising campaign. An electronic publishing company used a fake warning to advertise a book titled Irina. The hoax contained the name and contact information for a college professor, but none of that information was real. The Ohio State University released a full description of this hoax.
Vmyths discusses a number of different types of hoaxes and threats surrounding computers and the Hoax Encyclopedia offers a new history of viruses each week. The Internet Viruses, Virus Hoaxes, and Urban Legends is devoted to spreading the truth about Internet hoaxes. Snopes, which is devoted to urban legends, also discusses the world of Internet hoaxes and viruses. More information on viruses is discussed by McAfee and Internet Virus Antidote.
Users need to be aware of how they can identify a hoax and stop the spread of it. Hoax Busters provides information to help users identify a hoax and Email Hoaxes has information on the most common types of hoaxes. How to Identify a Hoax offers short steps to identifying a hoax and Identifying Hoaxes delves into the more common hoaxes found online. At How to Avoid E-mail Hoaxes, users learn what emails to delete. Internet Tips teaches users how to identify a real virus and what to do next.
