You Have Now Received the Unix Virus

Most of the people I know have been unscathed by the viruses that have been in the news lately as they primarily exploit the poor security of the Windows operating system. It seems odd to watch so many large corporations complain about how much damage they’ve suffered from each new virus and yet continue to use the Microsoft products that support their propogation. Maybe they’ll get a clue someday. In the meantime, I got a good laugh from an email I received yesterday – I think this is the first Unix “virus” I’ve ever seen:

>Date: Mon, 15 May 2000 18:21:37 -0500
>From: Jim Brown
>To: R. Steven Rainwater
>Subject: [Fwd: FW: Unix virus notice]
>
> YOU HAVE NOW RECEIVED THE UNIX VIRUS
>
>   This virus works on the honor system:
>
>   If you're running a variant of unix or linux, please forward
>   this message to everyone you know and delete a bunch of your
>   files at random.
>
> ---------

One thought on “You Have Now Received the Unix Virus

  1. Hm, I’m amazed this virus is still in the wild. You posted this nearly 13 years ago and I got a copy in my inbox today.
    Do you think deleting some older files from /usr/local/src folder counts as deleting?

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