>Date:         Sat, 28 Jan 1995 12:07:45 -0500
>From: "P. Divirgilio" <[log in to unmask]>
 
>Dear Netters,
>                I found an article from November 1994 about what
>                happens every time a virus letter is circulated. The
>                article is in Science & Vie, no. 926. p. 7 and is
>                titled Le virus de "Saint-Antoine" infecte deja
>                Internet. It is estimated that a single letter
>                modelled on the chain letters with 20 copies produces
>                3,200,000 letters on the Internet in very short
>                schrift. Viruses do not travel on email. The disease
>                is the letter itself according to the article which
>                consumes bandwidth satsfying the desire of the sender.
>                The same implications of guilt as the chain letter
>                accompany the virus letter asssuring its spread. Since
>                this list represents the broadest spectrum of the
>                Internet it seemed the best place to stop the letters
>                which indeed are the sum of the virus. -- Paul.
 
I hardly consider increased bandwidth destructive.  3.2 million
letters is pee-pee on the internet.  I get a ton of worthless
messages, and I don't consider them destructive either....  just
delete...  If any drives were crashed by this message, then they
were bound to be crashed anyway by normal traffic.
 
I don't want to start this E-mail thing again, but yes, there are
a number of ways to transport virus infected software via E-mail.
There are even ways to get mailers to provide access to a
privileged shell.
 
If there is a virus going around it's the "E-mail is safe"
virus...
 
________________________________________________________________________________
Brent Hammond <[log in to unmask]>
Digital Information Systems Corporation (DISC)