E-Mailed Virus Warnings

I never thought I would have to make this blog post, but events over the past couple of weeks have forced my hand.

Please: NEVER, EVER FORWARD E-MAILED WARNINGS OF VIRUSES

True virus warnings will not come from the guy that sends you silly emails. They won't even come from your accountant. They will come from the news - yes, that's right, watching the TV news or listening to the news on the radio you will hear stories of impending computer virus doom. Nimda, Melissa, and Conficker all made the 10 O'Clock news. They were worth worrying about.

E-mailed missives of impending doom often come from someone we trust, contain bogusness similar to "I checked with the executives at Symantec and they confirmed that this is for real," and "it will 'burn' your hard drive, making it unreadable and destroying all of your data," and are complete and utter wastes of time.

There are some idiots out there who create things like this then laugh at the chaos it creates. Please don't be their patsy! Don't kid yourself, forwarding these things is almost as bad as spreading a real virus in that they waste time and resources. Resources that have been spent assuring people that this warning is a hoax and that we do not need to prepare for this disastrous worm or virus or whatever. My phone rang for two days. My inbox filled up. My patience wore thin.

Your computer guy has better things to do than assure you that this is a hoax.