It should have been obvious to computer users that the "Good Times" virus that spawned fear on the Internet recently was a hoax, says Phillip Windley.
Warnings about the virus said it was packaged in an E-mail message provocatively slugged "Good Times" and was triggered when the message was read. But Windley said real viruses depend on executable programs for their lifeblood.Another clue "Good Times" was a hoax: the warnings said the virus could infect any type of computer. But computer viruses, like most of their real-life counterparts, can't cross species.
"A Mac virus can't execute on a PC," explains Windley.
Still, there are plenty of real computer viruses in circulation to fret over, some that do awful things to computers and others that rate little more than a bad joke.
A sampling of viruses:
- The "stealth" variety, like Stealthboot.c Virus. It's designed to go undetected by most anti-virus programs. "They're basically nasty and cause a lot of damage to people."
- The Key Press virus. When it strikes, you'll hit a key and the key will keep on repeatingggggggggggggg. Like that, only worse.
- Necrosoft. It seeks and destroys Microsoft programs.
- The FORM virus. It causes weird side effects, like a loud, annoying clicking with every keystroke.
- Jersaleum B. It attaches extra coding on the end of program, eventually creating such a long string the computer won't ever launch anything.