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Several of my company's Internet users recently received and circulated an e-mail message warning that their computers could be infected with a virus if they receive e-mail with the words "Good Times" in the subject line. This seems unlikely to me for many technical reasons. Is there any truth to it?
Never fear; it's not possible to infect a computer with a virus simply by reading your e-mail. It is possible to damage your computer by running a program of unknown origin that you've received via e-mail, but only if the program was written for your particular computer and.operating system and you run it intentionally.
The famous "Christmas tree" Trojan horse program, unleashed within IBM's internal e-mail system, was a classic example.
The widespread success of such hoaxes is fueled by the increasing number of computer neophytes gaining access to the Internet. Although you might question the possibility of such...