…they just move to new mediums. Waaaay back in 1994, a computer virus hoax known as Good Times was passed around the Internet. While not the first computer virus hoax, it is probably one of…

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Great blog post by Marc Fossi of Symantec about old hoaxes getting new life. I blogged similarly about Quechup Social Network spamming and how this is a security threat and not what users signed up for I am sure!

Is anyone original in this world? I would say, “Not Often”. I remember about a year ago so darn excited about the new Martin Scorsese film, “The Departed”. I love gangster flicks and I love Marty’s flicks and I was ready for a new experience in my life and to be enriched. Well, it was about half-way through the movie, when Leonardo DiCaprio’s character follows his boss, Jack Nicholson, into an adult movie theater to meet his mole in the Police Department.

At this point I realized I had seen this movie before. About a year before I had seen a phenomenal film from Hong Kong called “Infernal Affairs“. I was so disappointed, I mean crest fallen. Yes, Marty still made a good movie and yes there was a bunch of big American (whoopee) Hollywood actors in it, but the story, cinematography and everything had already been done superbly. Did these actors or Marty improve upon the original, no.

So, we have the same thing int he security world. Hoaxes have been around as long as email and the internet. They range from fake websites to chain emails that warn of viruses, bad luck without sending to your friends, missing kids, political shenanigans, urban legends and much more. These can be worse than an actual virus if they zap bandwidth or contain spam engines, etc.

So, as technology has evolved and people’s attention is on Facebook, MySpace and the like, the hoaxes return with a twist or just the same old one…originality is real work, and most people, especially hackers or makers of mayhem do not want to do real work. So, if you can think of any fun or funny stuff you got by email, stick it on your MySpace orFacebook and people will think you are cool and original!

Michael Rowles

Originality Inspector #7629