Where to Turn When It’s You Vs. Virus
You know the flu and virus season is the real deal when your sinuses back up like the Hoover Dam and fever has you hallucinating lunch with Eleanor Roosevelt. But how do you know when a warning about a computer virus is the real deal? Check it out with https://www.hoaxkill.com or https://www.kumite.com, two Web sites that keep the computer world straight on those panicky messages that advise against opening a certain e-mail and warn you about getting your bytes bit.
Kumite.com, run by computer experts Denise and Rob Rosenberger, is the broader of the two. In a light tone, it details histories of different viruses--real and rumored--and offers links to other virus education sites. Hoaxkill.com, with a more authoritative tone, lists a series of virus hoaxes that have made the rounds in recent years, including warnings against opening e-mails with “Pen Pals” or other specific topics listed in the subject line.
Turns out that viruses--so far, anyway--can’t be transmitted by e-mail (though they can travel through attached files). Unless, of course, the anti-hoaxers are really hoaxers and want us to open infected e-mails as part of an elaborate conspiracy to spread a virus that makes newspaper computers misspell words. But we dowte it.
