Was just reading a blogger quoting an amusing virus hoax spoof and had a horrifying thought! What if one day that virus hoax email turns out not to be a hoax at all!
Imagine the scenario! Microsoft learns of a virus which really IS really really new and really really dangerous, wipes everything off your hard disk, fries your motherboard and cannot be detected by any anti-virus software!
Bill Gates himself sits down to his computer to urgently write a message warning computer users all over the world (at least, the ones who understand English) of this horrific blight. He is in such a rush, that he makes lots of spelling and grammatical mistakes. He also takes the radical step of using Microsoft's rumoured (by me) one-billion-strong email database to send this message to as many Internet users as possible. Just in case he has missed anyone, he adds the line "send this to as many of your friends as possible"!
And what happens? We totally ignore it! We delete the mail, having been taught to do so by years of dealing with hoax virus warnings. The resulting cataclysm doesn't bear thinking about.
All of these "cry-wolf" hoaxes, not to mention people like this spoofing the whole issue are dulling us to the possibility that one day, the hoax won't be a hoax at all and we can all say "bye-bye hard disk, adieu motherboard, thanks Bill for trying"!
No wonder I am future-phobic...
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Thursday, March 8, 2007
Virus hoax will one day be true!
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