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<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>The E-Mail Virus</TITLE></HEAD><BODY BACKGROUND="Background.gif"><H1 ALIGN=CENTER>The E-Mail Virus</H1><P>Every once in a while I get something over the internet warning me about e-mail messages with particular subject headings. One is led to believe that cataclysmic things will happen to one's hard drive if one tries to read such messages. I find that it would be next to impossible for this to happen.<P>Files in a computer can be treated as either data or executable programs. They actually enter the central processing unit from different paths depending on their purpose. Executable programs do something: data is information.<P>A virus can only be active (do something) if it is a piece of an executable; if however it is in file that is treated only as data, it can do no harm. <P>In almost all cases your e-mail program will treat your messages as data. Now in addition to a main message, you may get attachments. Some of these may be out-and-out executables, and some - like a word processing file - may contain macros that could launch a virus; but reading the main message would not run these or any other executable programs that did not exist on the system before the message arrived.<P>There is another issue. In order for a virus to effectively spread through the internet, it should be able to run on the computers it encounters; however each type of computer requires a different kind of executable. Not only do you have Macs and PCs but you would also get Sun workstations, Hewlett-Packard mainframes, Vax machines, Crays, and so on. To infect all of these systems, a virus would need to have a piece of executable taylored for each one; furthermore the virus creator would have to have a detailed understanding of each computer type in order to cause similar damage on all systems.<P>What we have here is not a computer virus but a computer rumor: it is the original message that provides the "warning" - propagated not by the innards of a computer but by the users. If you have forwarded such a rumor or know someone else who has, please send a message not to spread these things further.<P>In saying this I acknowledge that there are some crafty people out there. If you ever do get a virus by JUST reading an e-mail message, I would be most interested in learning about it. Once you have returned your system to normal, please write to me at landrum@mail.utexas.edu .</P><CENTER>Robert G. Landrum<BR>December 16, 1996</CENTER><BR><HR>Return to <A HREF="index.html">Home Page</A>.</BODY></HTML>⌨️ 快捷键说明
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