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Hackingburgh

This is not a virus, but a hoax which was spread in usenet news and e-mail systems in May 1997. The hoax described a non-existant virus which has features no real virus could have. The warning claims to be from some US government organization known as "FCC", which does not issue virus warnings in the real world.

Here's a copy of the original warning:

  Please read the following and forward it to ANYONE you know about the
  new virus!!!!
  FCC Virus Warning!!!
          The FCC has just released a new virus warning of a email virus
  named "Hackingburgh". This virus is spread throughout networks and email
  servers.
          The infected message has random titles with one attachment and one
  Java applet. When the person reads the message, the virus would be evoked
  automatically by the commands of the suspicious Java applet. However,
  since the virus is so small, executing it would be undectable.
          "Hackingburgh" is a Multi-Partite, memory resident virus. Once the
  virus has bee executed by the commmands of the Java applet, it would
  overwrite the MBR and place the original MBR in sector 7, cylinder 1 of
  the disk. It would become memory resident everytime the computer has boot
  up and would infect any removable media, including floppies and Zip disks,
  that was inserted into the drives by placing itself at the end of the disk
  and altering the boot sector to point to this code. After the computer has
  boot up on the 13th of every month, the virus would reformat all visible
  hard drive partitions. Also, it might also corrupt program files slowly
  and cause illegal operations.
          This virus attacks MS-DOS based computers. Under Windows 95 and
  NT, the files Explorer.exe & System.dat has a 3-in-5 chance of being
  corrupted.  However, since the virus is a stealth virus, detection of the
  virus very difficult.
          In order to prevent infection by the virus, switch off the
  capability of reading Java applets in your Java-enabled browser like
  Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer(both browser together counts for
  98% of all browsers) before reading ANY email messages.

Please ignore this hoax warning and do not pass it on.

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Welcome to my hoax section if you encounter a message about a virus please send to [email protected] or call me on ICQ#22015420 I do not spread hoaxes! these pages are simply to inform other users that they are hoaxes. Please to not spread hoaxes. Hoax warnings are typically scare alerts started by malicious people - and passed on by innocent users who think they are helping the community by spreading the warning. Do not forward hoax messages. There have been cases where e-mail systems have collapsed after dozens of users forwarded a false alert to everybody in the company. Corporate users can get rid of the hoax problem by simply setting a strict company guideline: End users must not forward virus alarms. Ever. If such message is received, end users could forward it to the IT department but not to anyone else.