-=PCTechTalk=- Re: Postcard update apology

I was just about to send the correction myself when I received this followup 
post.  But I'm actually REALLY glad that he did send the original one into 
the group.  It gives us a chance to show everyone how to spot some of the 
more outrageous myths these types of warnings promote.


Specifically, there is no such thing as a software app, process or function 
that can physically destroy a hard drive.  Theoretically, it's possible for 
something to force a hard drive to read and write to the same exact spot 
over & over until that spot finally fails, but the spot will have to be 
relatively tiny and it would take many years to cause that failure.  The 
final result, a single file is corrupted.  No virus writer (even an amateur) 
is going to waste so much time on something so trivial.

Next, ANY email, forwarded or otherwise, that suggests that some piece of 
news was "just released yesterday" is almost always someone playing a prank 
on unsuspecting email recipients.  These garbage warnings are worded 
purposely in order to promote fear and urgency and they count on your panic 
to get you to then send the Spam out to everyone you care about in order to 
"save them" from the impending doom.  Of course, that just makes things 
worse.

Also, and this is probably the most important thing for everyone to 
remember, Microsoft does not classify malware under ANY circumstances.  They 
simply react to it by building security updates to prevent their ability to 
infect Windows systems.  Unless you're a subscriber to their technical 
newsletters, you won't even receive a notification that a security update 
has been created to help combat the problem.  Instead, you'll just get the 
patch mixed in with whatever other Windows Updates are available at the 
time.  As a company, they are extremely introverted in that they don't even 
like to communicate with the outside world unless it is to promote something 
they're selling (such as Vista or Office).  So, always remember that 
Microsoft is not the Grand Wizard of all things computer, as these warnings 
pretend it to be.  Overall, it could have been made more believable if the 
only company involved in the warning was McAfee, since virus killing IS 
their business.

All of these panic pieces then go on to explain, using technical terms that 
no one can refute (because they're so outrageous that even many technically 
inclined folks don't understand what they've just been told), how this brand 
new, just discovered, highly explosive virus is going to kill their auto, 
poison all of the food in the fridge and dump over your cat box (or destroy 
Sector Zero) if the warning is not sent to at least 274 other people who 
haven't yet received the warning.


To be fair, BashfulBob did the right thing and actually looked this up at a 
hoax busting site (you can find many of them by searching for "hoax bust" in 
any online search engine).  Unfortunately, there actually IS a very active 
virus going around that is disguised as a greeting card, so the warning to 
not open them without testing first is absolutely correct and led him to 
believe that the full content of this warning email he received was correct. 
While the true payload is not exactly pleasant, it's not going to destroy 
your hard drive.

Please surf carefully, kids.

Peace,
GMan

"The only dumb questions are the ones we fail to ask!"

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "bashfulbob" <bashfulbob@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2007 3:07 PM
Subject: Postcard update apology


Update to the postcard virus warning I sent around.

I am in error that the warning I received does contain an inaccuracy that I 
did not catch. This is my fault and I take responsibility for forwarding the 
inaccuracy.

Please accept my apology for that.

The correction is: Snopes does have this as a "true" but not as true for a 
sector zero issue...  only as malware which is substantially different than 
a Sector Zero virus. 


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