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Subject: RISKS DIGEST 18.73

RISKS-LIST: Risks-Forum Digest Monday 30 December 1996 Volume 18 : Issue 73

FORUM ON RISKS TO THE PUBLIC IN COMPUTERS AND RELATED SYSTEMS (comp.risks) ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy, Peter G. Neumann, moderator

***** See last item for further information, disclaimers, caveats, etc. *****

Contents: [Special HAPPY-1-JAN issue, to stave off responses on PENPAL] HOAX: PENPAL GREETINGS (Michael Kohne) China Strengthens Control Over Internet (Edupage) Re: Action Alert (David Wittenberg)

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Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1996 15:28:18 -0500 From: Michael Kohne <mhkohne@discordia.org> Subject: HOAX: PENPAL GREETINGS (Re: Zviran, RISKS-18.72)

SIGH. Don't we get enough of these in the newsgroups? This is yet another variation of the good-old Good Times hoax virus. Checkout http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/vinfodb.html. The 'P' section contains an entry on this annoyance.

As a general warning to everyone out there - Please do NOT pass along virus/trojan/etc warnings to ANYONE until you have discussed the matter with your sysadmin. Your sysadmin will likely know if it's real or not, and will be able to help you take proper preventive measures, and distribute the warning properly.

I know you are trying to help by distributing this warning, but really, all you are doing is WASTING EVERYONE'S TIME!

Thank you.

[Similar rapid responses on the hoax also contributed by Michael Naunton <mmn@onyx.interactive.net> and Al Stangenberger <forags@nature.berkeley.edu>, who pointed to http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACHoaxes.html Too bad we were not approaching 1 April instead of 1 Jan. PGN]

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Date: Sun, 29 Dec 1996 18:19:39 -0500 (EST) From: Edupage Editors <educom@elanor.oit.unc.edu> Subject: China Strengthens Control Over Internet (Edupage, 29 Dec 1996)

The newspaper called *China Consumers Daily* says that China plans to increase its controls over the Internet, which already include the requirement that all Internet users register with the police. In its war against pornography and "cultural rubbish," Chinese police detained more than 47,000 people and seized 320,000 pornographic products in the first ten months of 1996. Chinese authorities use the term "cultural rubbish" to include anything they consider unhealthy or politically suspect. (*Atlanta Journal-Constitution*, 27 Dec 1996, D3)

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Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1996 14:31:46 -0500 (EST) From: David Wittenberg <dkw@cs.brandeis.edu> Subject: Re: Action Alert (Handler, RISKS-18.71)

In RISKS-18.71, Jon Handler warns of the spread of personal information on the net, and gives the URLs of several suppliers of such information.

A longer list is available from "The Stalker's Home Page" <http://pages.ripco.com:8080/~glr/stalk.html> It's a rather scary resource for finding people or information about them.

--David Wittenberg dkw@cs.brandeis.edu

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End of RISKS-FORUM Digest 18.73 ************************