E-Mail Hoax

["Jim Ogden" <jogden@brc1.tdh.state.tx.us>]

Just received the following from our computer specialist and thought 
that I would share it with the network.

Thanks for your e-mail.  Fortunately, this IS a hoax.
It is technically impossible for a virus to be embedded 
into an e-mail.  The only way for a virus to work is for it 
to gain control of your CPU.  This can happen either through an 
executable file (.EXE, .COM, etc.), or through some MS-Word macros.

There have been a flood of these "e-mail virus" alerts lately, but 
they are all untrue.  There is, however, a virus-like ability with
e-mail, but it is in the "warning" itself.  Someone sends a message 
to a lot of people claiming some new e-mail virus.  The message is 
long and involved and suggests that it be sent to everyone the 
recipient knows.  

Many people, conscious of the threat viruses pose, send the message 
to everyone they can think of.  Then, these people do the same thing, 
and so-on.  The infectious nature of these warnings and the time it 
takes everyone in the "chain" to read them makes the warning itself 
rather virulent.



ps.  One note about MS-Word macro viruses:  There is a way to write a 
virus in the MS-Word macro language.  While opening an e-mail NEVER 
poses a threat, opening an MS-Word document from an untrusted source 
CAN pose a threat.  You should never open *junk* MS-Word documents.  
(One safe way, though, *might* be to open the Word document in a 
different word processor that does not support Visual Basic for 
Applications, but I can't guarantee that, as I have never tested the 
theory.)

Hope this helps to keep some of the Internet bandwidth clear - good 
computing!

Thanks,
James H. Ogden, Jr., Emergency Planner
WIPP Transportation Project
INTERNET Address (jogden@brc1.tdh.state.tx.us)
(512) 834-6688 ext 2041
(512) 834-6654 FAX