[GBlist] Re: Congratulations - you just deleted a system file!

["Marilyn" <timex@dsl.ca>]

The sulfnbk.exe alert reached critical mass in mid-May 2001, and concerned
users soon made it one of the Top 50 search phrases on Lycos.  Why did
this urban legend turn so quickly into mass hysteria? Consider the
followin
g:

The basic chain letter identifies an obscure file found on just about
every IBM-compatible PC in use today -- and it provides simple
instructions on how to find the file in question.
Some variants warned the virus would activate on "May 25," thereby giving
the chain letter a heightened sense of urgency.  Later variants warned the
virus would activate on 1 June.
Gullible users assumed they found a dangerous virus -- simply because they
found a file on their PC.  They then fell victim to False Authority
Syndrome.  (Vmyths.com surmises the 25 May & 1 June dates likewise
devolved fr
om gullible users who suffer from False Authority Syndrome.)
Some variants of the chain letter urge people to forward the alert as part
of an 
apology letter: "if you detect the virus you in turn need to contact
everyone 
you have send [sic] ANY email to in the past few months and share this 
waring [sic] with them."
One woman obediently wrote to her friends, "I am sorry if Sulfnbk is on
your 
computer..."  A man wrote to his colleagues, "I maight [sic] have
unwittingly 
been spreading a virus via email..."  These apology letters only add to
the 
confusion, which adds to the hysteria's success.  Mary Landesman 
(antivirus.about.com) summed it up quite nicely: "hoaxes survive simply by
causing confusion."  And the sulfnbk.exe hysteria does an excellent job at
causing confusion.
Vmyths.com repeats -- the basic sulfnbk.exe alert looks like an urban 
legend, not a "hoax."  We've seen this type of mass hysteria before, and
we'll probably see it again.
Cybercrone
http://www.pathcom.com/~timex/
Nana korobi, ya oki.

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