Hoax Warnings


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NAME:	Red Alert
ALIAS:	Microsoft Homepage Virus hoax

This is a warning of a nasty hoax that has been distributed on several mailing lists and in usenet news. The hoax message is falsely attributed to Mikko.Hypponen@F-Secure.com from F-PROT Professional Support.

This false warning urges people to stay off Microsoft's home page and not to use Microsoft Internet Explorer, because the 'Microsoft home page is possibly infected by a virus'. This is nonsense.

If you have seen this warning, please pass on this message, and please do not redistribute the original warning any more.

The origins on this nasty hoax is as of yet unknown. The original hoax warning is quoted here in full:

 Red Alert for anybody using Microsoft's Internet Explorer as
 their web browser.

 This came in on the virus forum at the University of Hamburg
 from a fairly reliable source: Mikko H. Hypponen
 (Mikko.Hypponen@F-Secure.com) in Finland. (datafellows is an
 anti-virus company)

 The first indication that something was amiss was when the
 computer of an MIS professional friend of Mikko's was completely
 wiped -- including BIOS and CMOS -- on 11-20-96. It took a great
 deal of arguing with Microsoft until 11-22-96 (logged at 0930
 hours) when they finally admitted something was wrong and took
 "their homepage into their lab."

 Mikko's first report was at 11:13 on 11-22-96. By 13:17 on
 11-22-96 the following message was received:

   Okay, it's official (last conversation with techs at 1200 hrs,
   11-22-96, virus confirmed) Western Digital and Microsoft
   confirm that a new virus is on the web and they cannot isolate
   it. The only thing they know for sure is that it completely
   wipes out a computer. As of this time, they cannot determine
   how best to get rid of the thing once it is in your system.

   [irrelevant "in-joke" cut]

   They are recommending that until they can isolate it (it
   appears to be coming from several locations) you just stay off
   the web.

 This sounds like a trojan rather than a virus, but it is
 extremely destructive nonetheless.

 Unless you can filter addresses so your webbrowser will not go
 to Microsoft's home page, stay off Microsoft's home page until
 further notice. (As Mikko post updates, I'll forward them.)

 Incidentally, Mikko and his friend *were* frequent users of
 Microsoft's Web browser.

If you have any questions about this hoax, contact Mikko Hypponen: Mikko.Hypponen@F-Secure.com

Another twist of this hoax appeared in November 1999. Here's what it looks like:

 PLEASE DO NOT DOWNLOAD ANYTHING FROM MICROSOFT!

 The virus named "Beta2gl" is not in any executable form.  It was
 probably accidentally encoded in various software by mistake.

 This virus goes into the ROM and from there affects all major
 parts of the Computer.  The virus is undetectable by any of the
 latest virus scanners.  This virus damages the Hard Disk Drive
 so it is unusable, attacks the display so you're down to a
 monochrome color (only), consumes all available memory and
 allows windows only 8 megs (doesn't matter how much ram you
 have).  The virus embeds itself into all versions of Windows, &
 Unix systems.  Trying to delete/detect or remove this virus will
 prompt a display basically stating :  "The operating system
 requires this file in order to operate".

 Due to this virus, my last computer is now totally destroyed.  I
 have sent a copy of the virus to McAfee as well as Norton and
 they basically told me that it can be removed by their virus
 scanners!  Yeah right! The virus scanners don't even detect it
 as a virus so how the hell could they remove it?

 Be careful!

 Please pass this message on to as many people as you can.

Please ignore this hoax message and don't pass it on.