Computer Virus Hoaxes - Are They As Damaging As a Real Virus Outbreak?
If you get a computer virus, your system can be damaged, or you can lose data through theft or a complete shutdown of your system.
The consequences of what might seem like a harmless little computer virus can be lost time, frustration, real financial loss and damaged data files and software.
A virus hoax can do the same amount of damage, believe it or not.
A virus hoax usually arrives by email and "warns" the recipient that a new viral threat is coming to computers.
After providing lots of detail about how much damage this new virus is going to cause, it ends by urging you to forward the email to as many people as you can.
This is like a "chain letter" and can cause mayhem once it gets loose on the web.
These hoaxes can be distributed very quickly.
If you consider that one person might forward the email to just 10 other people, and each of those 10 people forward it to just 10 people, the email gets distributed quickly.
Within six generations, the email will have circulated to more than 1 million email addresses.
By the time the email hits its seventh generation, more than 10 million emails have circulated, which can clog up the email systems worldwide.
The effect of all these emails clogging the system is routers and servers becoming overloaded and running slower or even crashing.
Sometimes these hoaxes are sent with the best of intentions.
One famous example is an email that warned about a virus called "Deeyenda".
This email has been circulating since 1995.
It claims that the "Deeyenda" virus is circulating and that the FCC is issuing warnings about the virus.
Recipients are urged to forward the e-mail on to their friends.
The warning is not only false, but presumes false information.
For example, it says that the virus can spread by just reading the email (which isn't possible) and the FCC doesn't issue warnings about email viruses.
Finally, there's never been a virus called "Deeyenda".
But even if an email is a hoax and you don't send it on, it can still do damage to your computer.
Some of these emails might urge the recipient to delete certain files that might not contain the virus at all.
These files could be essential to the running of the computer and might cause the computer to stop booting up properly.
Learning how to deal with virus hoaxes begins with so many other battles - you need to know who the enemy is.
First, read the email carefully.
Many will contain a large amount of technical jargon.
Some of the jargon might be real, while other aspects of it might be created by the perpetrator of the hoax and might contain jargon that makes no sense to people who are well versed in real computer jargon.
Many times virus hoaxes will reference the FCC or some company that specializes in virus software.
This is easy to check by going to the FCC or the software manufacturer's website.
If there is a large virus circulating, there will be information on relevant websites discussing it.
You might also hear about a real virus on the news, in the newspaper and via other reliable sources.
Finally, make sure that you don't fall for a purchase offer.
A virus hoax might be nothing more than a company trying to get you to purchase their antivirus software.
There are many legitimate offers, and some antivirus software can be free, so don't become a victim of this poor advertising scam.
The consequences of what might seem like a harmless little computer virus can be lost time, frustration, real financial loss and damaged data files and software.
A virus hoax can do the same amount of damage, believe it or not.
A virus hoax usually arrives by email and "warns" the recipient that a new viral threat is coming to computers.
After providing lots of detail about how much damage this new virus is going to cause, it ends by urging you to forward the email to as many people as you can.
This is like a "chain letter" and can cause mayhem once it gets loose on the web.
These hoaxes can be distributed very quickly.
If you consider that one person might forward the email to just 10 other people, and each of those 10 people forward it to just 10 people, the email gets distributed quickly.
Within six generations, the email will have circulated to more than 1 million email addresses.
By the time the email hits its seventh generation, more than 10 million emails have circulated, which can clog up the email systems worldwide.
The effect of all these emails clogging the system is routers and servers becoming overloaded and running slower or even crashing.
Sometimes these hoaxes are sent with the best of intentions.
One famous example is an email that warned about a virus called "Deeyenda".
This email has been circulating since 1995.
It claims that the "Deeyenda" virus is circulating and that the FCC is issuing warnings about the virus.
Recipients are urged to forward the e-mail on to their friends.
The warning is not only false, but presumes false information.
For example, it says that the virus can spread by just reading the email (which isn't possible) and the FCC doesn't issue warnings about email viruses.
Finally, there's never been a virus called "Deeyenda".
But even if an email is a hoax and you don't send it on, it can still do damage to your computer.
Some of these emails might urge the recipient to delete certain files that might not contain the virus at all.
These files could be essential to the running of the computer and might cause the computer to stop booting up properly.
Learning how to deal with virus hoaxes begins with so many other battles - you need to know who the enemy is.
First, read the email carefully.
Many will contain a large amount of technical jargon.
Some of the jargon might be real, while other aspects of it might be created by the perpetrator of the hoax and might contain jargon that makes no sense to people who are well versed in real computer jargon.
Many times virus hoaxes will reference the FCC or some company that specializes in virus software.
This is easy to check by going to the FCC or the software manufacturer's website.
If there is a large virus circulating, there will be information on relevant websites discussing it.
You might also hear about a real virus on the news, in the newspaper and via other reliable sources.
Finally, make sure that you don't fall for a purchase offer.
A virus hoax might be nothing more than a company trying to get you to purchase their antivirus software.
There are many legitimate offers, and some antivirus software can be free, so don't become a victim of this poor advertising scam.
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