The Cost of an Email Virus Hoax
This is the story of the hoax that cried virus.
Computer virus hoaxes have been around for nearly as long as the first virus. Just after the 1988 introduction of the infamous Morris Internet worm, the first hoax began circulating. One might even consider hoaxes to be a cottage industry for the virus writers. Indeed, hoaxes, with their ominous warnings or fictitious promises of instant wealth, often seem far more believable to users than do legitimate warnings of actual threats.
This in itself is disturbing, as once burned by a hoax many choose to disregard valid alerts as well.
Hoaxes are arguably nothing more than a manually-driven email worm. By definition, a worm is a piece of malicious code that copies itself over and over again. While a real worm relies on coding to spread, the hoax simply relies on the user to do its dirty deed. As a result, a hoax can spread around the Internet in hours, clogging inboxes, saturating mail servers, and frustrating administrators who are charged with debunking these messages. The fact is, hoaxes have only one purpose in life, and that is to spread to as many people as possible -- quite the same goal as most viruses, in fact.
What many don?t realize is that just as viruses cost recipients, so do hoaxes. A report published by the now defunct Hoaxbusters points out that "if everyone on the Internet were to receive one hoax message and spend one minute reading and discarding it, the cost: would be something like: 50,000,000 people * 1/60 hour * $50/hour = $41.7 million."
The second problem hoaxes deliver is complacency. An individual, already embarrassed once for naively believing in a hoax, is much less likely to accept a valid virus warning as being true. Thus, a valid warning is met with disbelief and apathy. In such a case, a hoax can be considered a potential precursor to disaster.
With the inherent negativity of a hoax already established, what should we do when a hoax message is received? Do we succumb to potentially misguided helpfulness and forward it on as suggested? Many fall into the "just-in-case" trap. They forward the email to everyone in their address book, despite their misgivings or doubt, just in case it might be true. As seen in the calculations above, this "just-in-case" forwarding is damaging. So what should we do?
If you still need further reason to refrain from forwarding these fakes, consider this: hoax forwarding is the hallmark behavior of a naive and gullible user. Is that really how you want to be perceived?
Computer virus hoaxes have been around for nearly as long as the first virus. Just after the 1988 introduction of the infamous Morris Internet worm, the first hoax began circulating. One might even consider hoaxes to be a cottage industry for the virus writers. Indeed, hoaxes, with their ominous warnings or fictitious promises of instant wealth, often seem far more believable to users than do legitimate warnings of actual threats.
This in itself is disturbing, as once burned by a hoax many choose to disregard valid alerts as well.
Hoaxes are arguably nothing more than a manually-driven email worm. By definition, a worm is a piece of malicious code that copies itself over and over again. While a real worm relies on coding to spread, the hoax simply relies on the user to do its dirty deed. As a result, a hoax can spread around the Internet in hours, clogging inboxes, saturating mail servers, and frustrating administrators who are charged with debunking these messages. The fact is, hoaxes have only one purpose in life, and that is to spread to as many people as possible -- quite the same goal as most viruses, in fact.
How the Cost Adds Up
What many don?t realize is that just as viruses cost recipients, so do hoaxes. A report published by the now defunct Hoaxbusters points out that "if everyone on the Internet were to receive one hoax message and spend one minute reading and discarding it, the cost: would be something like: 50,000,000 people * 1/60 hour * $50/hour = $41.7 million."
The second problem hoaxes deliver is complacency. An individual, already embarrassed once for naively believing in a hoax, is much less likely to accept a valid virus warning as being true. Thus, a valid warning is met with disbelief and apathy. In such a case, a hoax can be considered a potential precursor to disaster.
How to Prevent Being Duped
With the inherent negativity of a hoax already established, what should we do when a hoax message is received? Do we succumb to potentially misguided helpfulness and forward it on as suggested? Many fall into the "just-in-case" trap. They forward the email to everyone in their address book, despite their misgivings or doubt, just in case it might be true. As seen in the calculations above, this "just-in-case" forwarding is damaging. So what should we do?
- Take a time out. If the e-mail sounds like a hoax, it probably is. Do not instantly react to save the world. You can be certain, if it's a real threat, the news media and legitimate antivirus sources will publish all the necessary alerts.
- Check out the facts. The Hoax Information Center provides a comprehensive list of the most common hoaxes.
- Ask for help. If you are at a company, ask your system administrator or desktop support person to verify its accuracy.
- Do some research. Try a simple search on a site such as Google to see what information there is about it.
- When in doubt, don't sent it out.
If you still need further reason to refrain from forwarding these fakes, consider this: hoax forwarding is the hallmark behavior of a naive and gullible user. Is that really how you want to be perceived?
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