[LF] when is a virus not a virus?

[Lahey Support]

Hi everyone:

So I'm paranoid. Some of you reported that your virus checkers screamed
about a virus when you opened your email today, some of you got no
warning. I got no warning.

So I filed the message in a special folder, and labelled it
"INFECTED!!!"

Then I reasoned that if Norton Anti-Virus version 5.0, for which I paid
good dollars not-so-long-ago didn't pick up a virus, either the virus
was a new one, Norton Anti-Virus doesn't work, or maybe its not a virus
after all - just a file with pretensions. In the first two cases, the
Norton people should want to know. So I shipped off my file to Symantec
for a definitive analysis.

Folks - we've been had. Our virus is not a virus. That's what Symantec
says (see below). Does that make you feel confident?

Mike Milgram

PS. Does anyone know how to save an .EXE email attachment without first
attempting to open it and praying that you will be presented with a
SAVE/OPEN warning dialogue? I'm not foolhardy enough to try that, but
as long as the attachment remains a text file - well, its obviously not
harmful. Symantec told me so.

________________________________________
Message received from SARC:

This message is an automatically generated reply. This system is
designed
to analyze and process virus submissions into the Symantec AntiVirus
Research Center (SARC) and cannot accept correspondence or inquiries.
Please contact your Technical Support representative if more detailed
information about your submission is required. Do not reply to this
message.

Below is a status update on your virus submission:

Date: Thu Feb 24 13:09:38 PST 2000
Michael Milgram
Dear Michael Milgram
We have analyzed your submission. The following is a report of our
findings for each file you have submitted:

filename: C:Program FilesNetscapeUsersgmtrcsmailINFECTED!!!
machine:
result: This file is clean

filename: C:Program FilesNetscapeUsersgmtrcsmailINFECTED!!!.snm
machine:
result: This file is clean

We have determined that no virus exists on the samples provided.

Developer notes:
C:Program FilesNetscapeUsersgmtrcsmailINFECTED!!! is a text file.
C:Program FilesNetscapeUsersgmtrcsmailINFECTED!!!.snm does not
appear to be infected.
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