Rumor?...or should i panic?

Viruses and worms
1

I got an email today…i am just wondering if this is actually a virus or if someone is just trying the stupid chain mail thing…the email is as follows:

Emails with pictures of Osama Bin-Laden hanged are being sent and the moment that you open these emails your computer will crash and you will not be able to fix it! If you get an email along the lines of "Osama Bin Laden Captured" or "Osama Hanged" don't open the attachment. This e-mail is being distributed through countries around the globe, but mainly in the US and Israel. Be considerate & send this warning to whomever you know. PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS: You should be alert during the next days: Do not open any message with an attached filed called "Invitation" regardless of who sent it. It is a virus that opens an Olympic Torch which "burns" the whole hard disc C of your computer. This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list, that is why you should send this e-mail to all your contacts. It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it. If you receive a mail called "invitation", though sent bya friend, do not open it and shut down your computer immediately. This is the worst virus announced by CNN, it has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept.

I know that the first sector of your HD is the MBR…but can that totally mess up your computer? I dont know…im only about 1/3 thru my IT course…so… ;D

2

Don’t Panic!

It’s a hoax:

http://vil.mcafee.com/hoax.asp

http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/osama.asp

This one just seems designed to frighten and alarm, but other hoaxes may actually ask you to do something harmful to your computer, or may even have a virus attached.

3

okay good thanks…I wonder what kind of people get a kick out of this? Its not even funny!

4

There are always emails being sent using social engineering in the hope that you will open and attachment or click a link to a web site and the end result could be infection.

The fact that this is a hoax isn’t important, what is important is using a degree of common sense and never open attachments or click links in unsolicited emails. Even if it seems to come from a friend, the from email address can be forged, check, check, confirm they sent it. Better to delete an unsolicited/uunexpected email and find you were wrong, it can always be sent again, than become infected.

5

Just another point on these “PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS:” ignore them.

Never forward these types of warning to all in your address book all this does it put more cr*p into the inboxes of others and could clog email servers. Just imagine 1 sends to 200 and they send to 200 and they send to 200, I think you can see were I’m going with this, it won’t take long before everyone in the world and their friend will be sending this ****.