Recently an announcement went out over Screen-L about a supposed virus known as AOL4FREE, which is a virus hoax. Normally we do not post virus warnings on Screen-L because so many of them are hoaxes. This one slipped through by mistake. I'm posting this follow-up message, though, because AOL4FREE is a hoax that has sort of become a reality. Sort of. Let me stress that it is IMPOSSIBLE to catch a virus just by reading a plain ol' text e-mail message. HOWEVER, it is possible to become infected by opening a file that is ATTACHED to a plain ol' text e-mail message. A file attachment is separate from the message itself and may contain, say, a MS Word document or even computer software. If you open an infected document or run infected software, then your computer will become sick. Please check the documentation of your e-mail program for further information on file ATTACHMENTS. Now, what happened in the AOL4FREE case, as documented by the U.S. Department of Energy's Computer Incident Advisory Capability ( http://ciac.llnl.gov/ ) group is a hoax that said reading a message with the subject related to AOL4FREE would destroy your harddisk. This was and is completely untrue. Then, someone decided to create a simple little program--what's known as a Trojan horse (looks like one thing, but is really another)--that could be distributed as an e-mail FILE ATTACHMENT and would indeed delete all the files on your PC (though not on Macs). To repeat: This is a FILE that is ATTACHED to a message and not the message text itself. Nothing you read on Screen-L, for example, can give you a virus or destroy files on your computer. So, to protect yourself: NEVER EVER open a FILE ATTACHMENT from someone you do not know. And be mighty suspicious of FILE ATTACHMENTS from persons you do know. If you want all the details, please hop over to: http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/bulletins/h-47a.shtml where an "AOL4FREE Trojan Horse" bulletin was posted one week ago. Please e-mail me directly (and not Screen-L) if you have any questions. Regards, ---- Jeremy Butler [log in to unmask] ScreenSite http://www.sa.ua.edu/ScreenSite Telecommunication & Film/University of Alabama/Tuscaloosa ---- Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite http://www.sa.ua.edu/screensite