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"Virus Hoax:
Malicious Code Example"
Virus Hoax Warnings: Page 17
of 39
AOL V4.0 Cookie
AOL has declared the AOL V4.0 Cookie chain letter a hoax. CIAC
received the following statement from AOL: "I wish to bring to your
attention the attached hoax letter that has been circulating on the
Internet, making serious allegations about AOL 4.0. All of these
allegations are false." Tatiana Gau, Vice President of AOL Integrity
Assurance. From a former AOL employee:
I'll try and cut through the crap, and try to get to the point of
this letter.
I used to work for America Online, and would like to remain
anonymous for that reason. I was laid off in early September, but I
know exactly why I was laid off, which I will now explain:
Since last December, I had been one of the many people assigned to
design AOL 4.0 for Windows (AOL 4.0 beta, codenamed Casablanca).
In the beginning, I was very proud of this task, until I found out
the true cost of it. Things were going fine until about
mid-February, when me and 2 of my colleagues started to suspect a
problem, an unexplainable 'Privacy Invasion', with the new version.
One of them, who is a master programmer, copied the finished portion
of the new version (Then 'Build 52'), and took it home, and we spent
nearly 2 weeks of sleepless nights examining and debugging the
program, flipping it inside-out, and here is what we found.
Unlike all previous versions of America Online, version 4.0 puts
something in your hard drive called a 'cookie'. (AOL members click
here for a definition). However, the cookie we found on Version 4.0
was far more treacherous than the simple Internet cookie. How would
you like somebody looking at your entire hard drive, snooping
through any (yes, any) piece of information on your hard drive. It
could also read your password and log in information and store it
deep in the program code. Well, all previous versions, whether you
like it or not, have done this to a certain extent, but only with
files you downloaded. As me and my colleagues discovered, with the
new version, anytime you are signed on to AOL, any top AOL
executive, any AOL worker, who has been sworn to secrecy regarding
this feature, can go in to your hard drive and retrieve any piece of
information that they so desire. Billing, download records, e-mail,
directories, personal documents, programs, financial information,
scanned images, etc. Better start keeping all those pictures on a
floppy disk!
This is a totally disgusting violation of our rights, and your right
to know as well. Since this is undoubtedly 'Top Secret' information
that I am revealing, my life at AOL is pretty much over.
After discovering this inform attain, we started to inform a few
other workers at America Online, so that we could get a large enough
crew to stop this from happening to the millions of unfortunate and
unsuspecting America Online members. This was in early August. One
month later, all three of us were unemployed. We got together, and
figured there was something we had to do to let the public know.
Unemployed, with one of us going through a divorce (me) and another
who is about to undergo treatment for Cancer, our combined financial
situation is not currently enough to release any sort or article.
We attempted to create a web page on three different servers
containing in-depth information on AOL 4.0, but all three were taken
down within 2 days. We were running very low on time (4.0 is
released early this winter), so we figured our last hope to reveal
this madness before it effects the people was starting something
similar to a chain letter, this letter you are reading. Please do
the following, to help us expose AOL for who they really are, and to
help us and yourself receive personal gratification for taking a
stand for our freedom:
1. Forward this letter to as many people as you can (not just
friends and family, as many as you can)!
2. Tell people who aren't on America Online in person, especially
important people (Private Investigators, Government workers, City
Council)
3. If the information about the new version isn't exposed by the
time AOL is released early this winter, for your own protection,
DON'T DOWNLOAD AOL 4.0 UNDER ANY CONDITION !!!
Thank you for reading and examining this information. Me and my
colleagues hope that you will help us do the right thing in this
situation. Enjoy America Online (just kidding!).
Regards, A former AOL employee
Copyright 2004 by Jay Jennings
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