At 11:20 AM 4/23/97 -0500, Roy I Mathers wrote:
>NEW YORK-A COMPUTER VIRUS IS CIRCULATING ON THE INTERNET WITH THE
>ENTICING NAME OF AOL4FREE.COMTHAT DESTROYS FILES ON USERS'HARD
>DRIVES,THE US DEPT OF ENERGY SAYS.
>   THE DOE SAID THE"TROJAN HORSE"PROGRAM DISGUISED WITHIN  ANOTHER
>PROGRAM THAT SOMEONE ELSE MIGHT UNSUSPECTINGLY DOWNLOAD.IT THEN
>ATTACKS THE USERS SYSTEM OR BREAKS THE SECURITY.QUICKLY PRESSING THE
>"CONTROL= C" KEYS  WILL  SAVE SOME OF THE FILES ,THE DOESAID IN A REPORT
>LAST WEEK ON THE VIRUS,WHICH WAS FIRST DISCLOSED ON AMERICA ONLINE 
>E-MAIL LAST MONTH.
>     THE PROGRAM-WHICH CAN ATTACK ANY DOS,WINDOWS 95, OR WINDOWS
>3.1OPERATING SYSTEM-ALSO COULD IMPLANT OBSCENE MESSAGES.

Everyone remember:

1. A virus like program can not spread in an e-mail message. While an
   infected program could be attached to an e-mail message, the e-mail
   message itself cannot contain one in any form that could be executed.

2. A virus or Trojan horse program can not infect a system by simply being
   read. The current mail readers do not execute an e-mail message, they
   display it on the screen for you to read. You must take care when
   downloading an attachment to an e-mail message. In some mail readers
   you can double click on the attachment icon to have it extracted and
   opened by whatever program created it. If that attachment is a program,
   it is downloaded and run, and running any program you have not scanned
   could cause you to be infected with a virus.

3. What Roy is describing is a Trojan horse program. That Trojan horse
   is attached to an e-mail message and if the reader downloads
   and executes the Trojan horse program, it will do the damage described
   in Roy's message.

For more information on the AOL4FREE trojan horse, see
http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/bulletins/h-47a.shtml

Coyote
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