Actually, you're wrong. Ever heard of Embedding? You can embed a virus in
text, pictures, waves, midi files etc. So I think you would be inclined to
update your virus knowledge by visiting some hackers pages and checking out
some of the nasty little tricks that the cyberwarriors are using. E-mail
bombs are much the same as an embedded virus in that when you read it, that
starts the bomb/virus' .exe, then (if your boot section is NOT
write-protected), the virus infects the boot files and whatever else it is
told to do. 
So, unless you have hard evidence that this is in FACT a hoax....a false
sense of security is all you offer other Netizens.
Sorry to burst your bubble.

Shred
----------
> From: Doug McKean <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Virus warning
> Date: Sunday, April 06, 1997 10:31 AM
> 
> This is a hoax.
> Every so often during the year these "notices" come up.
> 
> Number One Way to Know a Notice is a Hoax -
> 
>      You cannot start a virus by opening a text file.
> 
>  Virus work by residing in .EXE or .COM files,
>  files that control something.
> 
> Number Two Way to Know a Notice is a Hoax -
> 
>      Viruses CANNOT physically destroy a hard drive,
>      believe it or not.
> 
>  The only way a virus can physically destroy a hard drive
>  is to rewrite the READ/WRITE cycles for the hard drive
>  to some incredible amount of cycles. If this is done,
>  and you sit there without any regard to the fact that
>  you PC is taking 5 hours to read a 1K text file, you
>  deserve to have your hard drive destroyed (dripping sarcasm).
> 
>  A virus that "destroys" a hard drive doesn't do anything
>  to the hard drive at all. It rewrites or erases the hard
>  drive driver program. This "essentially" destroys the hard
>  drive to the user depending upon what's in it, but the hard
>  drive "I guarantee" is physically still ok.
> 
>  I have had this happen to me. I had a 1.2Gb drive that
>  suddenly was only 500Mb large. That should have been a
>  key piece of info for me. DOS can only handle a drive
>  without a driver up to, you guessed it, 500Mb. I reloaded
>  the driver (yes I lost the info on my drive) and I still
>  use that hard drive today. The gentleman who helped me
>  chuckled at the fact that I didn't hand in my drive to
>  a parts seller. He'd just take the hard drive, reload
>  the driver, then sell it back to someone else.
> 
> Don't be fooled into these virus notices.
> 
> Anyway, here's some sites about virus's
> 
> Computer Incident Advisory Capability
>  http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACHome.html
>  http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/bulletins/
>  http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/ToolsDOSVirus.html
>  http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/SecurityTools.html
> 
> Also the CIAC has this to say about receiving a warning -
> 
> What to Do When You Receive a Warning
> =====================================
> 
> Upon receiving a warning, you should examine its PGP signature 
> to see that it is from a real response team or antivirus 
> organization. To do so, you will need a copy of the PGP 
> software and the public signature of the team that sent the 
> message. The CIAC signature is available from the CIAC web 
> server at:
> 
> http://ciac.llnl.gov
> ************************************************************
> If there is no PGP signature, see if the warning includes 
> the name of the person submitting the original warning. 
> Contact that person to see if he/she really wrote the warning 
>  and if he/she really touched the virus. If he/she is passing 
> on a rumor or if the address of the person does not exist or 
> if there is any questions about theauthenticity or the warning, 
> do not circulate it to others. Instead, send the warning to 
> your computer security manager or incident response team and 
> let them validate it. When in doubt, do not send it out to 
> the world. Your computer security managers and the incident
> response teams teams have experts who try to stay current 
> on viruses and their warnings.
> 
> ************************************************************
>   -------------------------------------------------------
>   The comments and opinions stated herein are mine alone,
>           and do not reflect those of my employer.
>    -------------------------------------------------------
> ************************************************************
> 
>
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