BUG COMIN ON JUNE 1st

El Marco

Just wonderin does anyone know anything about some bug thats supposed to affect all the computers on June 1st.
I only heard it off my ma and she works in Hewlett Packard and it affected them.

IS MY MA MISINFORMED OR IS IT TRUE?

---

(Insert quote here)

---

Hobbes

Is this the SNLFNBK.EXE alert? It's a Hoax... ffs I had about 20 emails warning me of it and then another 20+ emails from people wanting to know how they fix thier windows after they trashed it.

You would think people would know better.

El Marco

good stuff

Bard

Your ma is misinformed

---

Bard

---

Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies.

Kix

Mate,

Big anti-virus sites are generally excellent, authorative sources of virus and virus hoax info. I use Symantec's www.sarc.com myself, no particular reason. If you have internet access (which you clearly do) then it's easy to check yourself.

Hoax virus warnings drive me potty. Amongst other things I'm a sys admin and stamping them out has been a hobby horse of mine for years.

K

Hobbes

The history of this hoax is intresting...

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">
sulfnbk.exe virus

(Not to be confused with the Honor System virus...)

A sulfnbk.exe virus alert surfaced in April 2001. The basic
alert achieved immense popularity with gullible users by mid-May 2001.
Antivirus vendors have declared it a hoax for the most part -- but
Vmyths.com categorizes it as a mass-hysteria urban legend.

Bear with us, 'cuz it's a bizarre tale...

Vmyths.com conferred with Microsoft's
computer security team on 29 May 2001.
They intercept numerous emails with
SULFNBK.EXE attachments -- all infected
with the well-known Magistr virus.
Microsoft's claim contradicts details found on McAfee's website and
agrees with details found on Symantec's website.

Vmyths.com dismisses McAfee's information as inaccurate. It's not a
hoax per se. We expect McAfee will soon correct their virus information
library.

How did the sulfnbk.exe hysteria get started, then? Vmyths.com
constructed a more plausible scenario based on readers' input to our
HoaxFYI service. Here's what we think really happened:

1.Someone's PC got infected with the Magistr worm/virus. It
forwarded itself to others as an attachment in emails.

2.One of those emails went out with an attachment named
SULFNBK.EXE. A recipient detected the virus with antivirus
software.

3.The recipient searched his PC for "sulfnbk.exe" -- and he found it.
(It's a standard Windows operating system file.) Yet, try as he
might, he couldn't get his antivirus software to detect a virus in that
file. So he deleted it from his PC.

4.The well-meaning recipient then sent a warning to his colleagues
telling them how to search for the evil file.

5.Another well-meaning user received the warning, found the "virus"
on his own system, and sent out a warning of his own. Another
well-meaning user received that warning, found the "virus" on his
own system, and sent out a warning of his own. Another
well-meaning user received that warning...

Many well-meaning users fell prey to False Authority Syndrome when they
"detected" SULFNBK.EXE on their computers. The alert has already
taken on numerous different forms -- because so many clueless people
keep rewriting the alert. They don't seem content to just forward the
original warning they received...

McAfee confirms sulfnbk.exe warnings now appear in English, Spanish,
Portuguese, Dutch, and Italian. Vmyths.com has seen French and
German versions, and we believe well-meaning users translated the
warnings from one language to another. (Caveat: based on readers' input
to our HoaxFYI service, Vmyths.com believes one of the more popular
English variants derived from McAfee's website.)

The sulfnbk.exe alert reached critical mass in late-May 2001, and
concerned users soon made it one of the Top 50 search phrases on
Lycos. Lycos pundit Aaron Schatz reports "searches for the virus [began]
about five weeks ago and in the last two weeks have gone up an obscene
1410 percent."

Why did this urban legend turn so quickly into mass hysteria? Consider
the following:

1.The basic chain letter identifies an obscure file found on tens of
millions of PCs -- and it offers simple instructions on how to find
the file in question.

2.Some variants warned the virus would activate on "May 25,"
thereby giving the chain letter a heightened sense of urgency. Later
variants warned the virus would activate on 1 June.

3.Gullible users assumed they found a dangerous virus -- simply
because they found a file on their PC. They then fell victim to False
Authority Syndrome. (Vmyths.com surmises the 25 May & 1 June
dates likewise devolved from gullible users who suffer from False
Authority Syndrome.)

4.Some variants of the chain letter urge people to forward the alert as
part of an apology letter: "if you detect the virus you in turn need
to contact everyone you have send [sic] ANY email to in the past
few months and share this waring [sic] with them."

One woman obediently wrote to her friends, "I am sorry if Sulfnbk is on
your computer..." A man wrote to his colleagues, "I maight [sic] have
unwittingly been spreading a virus via email..." These apology letters only
add to the confusion, which adds to the hysteria's success. Mary
Landesman (antivirus.about.com) summed it up quite nicely: "hoaxes
survive simply by causing confusion." And the sulfnbk.exe hysteria does
an excellent job at causing confusion.

Vmyths.com repeats -- the basic sulfnbk.exe alert looks like an urban
legend, not a "hoax." We've seen this type of mass hysteria before and
we'll probably see it again.

Please continue to forward sulfnbk.exe alerts to our HoaxFYI account.
Vmyths.com will study them in an effort to detect changing trends in
virus hysteria.
</font>

Lex_Diamonds

Well, it fooled meh. Mainly because the icon for that file looks really hax0rish and I never go near the command directory.

amp

And I thought believing AV warnings from AOL was bad.

---

Lunacy Abounds! GLminesweeper RO><ORS!
art is everything and of course nothing and possibly also a sausage

ConUladh

No need to read the article but it contains a number of links to hoax lists and other related resources that may come in handy next time someone gets a mail they're unsure about

http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-05-31.htm#1