It’s a wonderful hoax

Just a pointer to a recent blog on the ESET Threatblog: It’s a Wonderful Hoax. It looks at two hoaxes that have been conflated into one chainletter (also seen on social media, especially Facebook): the “don’t have anything to do with Joe Bloggs because he’s a hacker” type of hoax, and the “Don’t open a message called [something or other] or an attachment called [something or other] because it will blow up your PC and set fire to your garden shed” (or something like that) hoax type. Oh, the nostalgia: Good Times, Olympic Torch, Life is Beautiful, all those hoaxes of yesteryear. The Untruth is still out there.

There are, of course, attachments that you certainly shouldn’t open, but mailing the entire internet to tell everyone about a threat doesn’t exist isn’t productive…

David Harley CITP FBCS CISSP
Small Blue-Green World/AVIEN/Mac Virus/Anti-Malware Testing
ESET Senior Research Fellow