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"Virus Hoax:
Malicious Code Example"
Virus Hoax Warnings: Page 8
of 39
Ghost.exe Warning
The Ghost.exe program was originally distributed as a free screen
saver containing some advertising information for the author's
company (Access Softek). The program opens a window that shows a
Halloween background with ghosts flying around the screen. On any
Friday the 13th, the program window title changes and the ghosts fly
off the window and around the screen. Someone apparently got worried
and sent a message indicating that this might be a Trojan. The
warning grew until the it said that Ghost.exe was a Trojan that
would destroy your hard drive and the developers got a lot of nasty
phone calls (their names and phone numbers were in the About box of
the program.) A simple phone call to the number listed in the
program would have stopped this warning from being sent out. The
original ghost.exe program is just cute; it does not do anything
damaging. Note that this does not mean that ghost could not be
infected with a virus that does do damage, so the normal virus
procedure of scanning it before running it should be followed.
Copyright 2004 by Jay Jennings
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