Avoid Internet Hoaxes

Some really well-meaning friends keep sending me all sorts of warnings about viruses and various other antisocial activities. Most of these turn out to be well known as hoaxes. There are lots of very good sites out there that document both real threats and hoaxes, here are some tips and links for you to use before passing things on.

Virus Warnings

First check with the major virus alert sites. Remember, the chance that you would get a notice about a virus before these folks is very very small. If it isn't on one of these sites -- don't believe it.

The Computer Emergency Response Team -- run by a federally funded research and development center at Carnegie Mellon University.

The Computer Incident Advisory Capability -- run by the US Department of Energy

United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) from the Department of Homeland Security offers both technical and non-technical information about threats.

Lists of Hoaxes

This is a good list of virus type hoaxes -- these things just keep reappearing, so even if it is new to you, it might well be on his list. Maintained by Rob Rosenberger, one of the guys in the white hats.

A list of links by the author of the page above. Good stuff and he works lots harder at this than I do.

A broader class of hoaxes is Urban Legends. In general these deal with warnings of antisocial/criminal behavior not necessarily related to computers. This is a very nice link because it is searchable.

Monitoring the Internet

Finally, if you want to see for yourself how healthy the internet is you can get current information at
The Internet Traffic Report
You need to read some of the material on this site so that you know what you are looking at.

Notice: This image is the copyrighted property of the artist -- Mark Schnaderback

Not Quite the Same topic but:
Some introductory information about computer security and hacker attacks.

this page is at http://drott.cis.drexel.edu/hoaxes.html
Revised: 10/24/2000