There are dozens of examples that PROVE that no one's above believing a hoax, but the best one is the Gulf War Virus story -- which survives (and has even been embellished with time!) for 8 years.

Yes, HOAX. It never happened; let's get that out of the way to start with.

It began life as an APRIL FOOL'S joke by reporter John Gantz in Infoworld magazine. Gantz reported that the NSA has secretly encoded a virus into the microcontroller of various printers sent from France to Iraq, which then mucked up their computers during the Gulf War.

Note again: this was a JOKE. It never happened.

The first to pick up the hoax and present it as fact was US News And World Report, which passed it on its 1992 book about the Gulf War, "Triumph Without Victory." James Adams more recent book on information warfare, "The Next World War," borrowed from USN&WR's info almost verbatim, so he got bitten, too.

In March 1999, Popular Mechanics' Jim Wilson embellished the story a bit: "The [infected] chips ... were programs designed to infect and disrupt the communications systems that linked anti-aircraft missiles to radar installations."

But wait! There's more!

-- Stephen M. Poole, CET (smpoole7@bellsouth.net), June 05, 1999

Answers

And here's the more, taken from the excellent article about this at the Crypt News site:

"A few months ago ex-CIA chief William Webster and journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave were also gaffed by the Gulf War virus hoax in a Center for Strategic and International Studies report entitled 'Cybercrime, Cyberterrorism, Cyberwarfare.'"

Others who've been taken by the hoax include the Discovery Channel, Time, and the Hudson Institute -- a very influential conservative think tank.

Remember: this is a hoax. It never happened.

I would encourage everyone here to read Dr. Smith's book, "The Virus Creation Labs" (no, I don't make a nickle for the endorsement). When I stories here about "dangerous hackers shutting down the power" or "invading the White House" or other such nonsense, I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

(On the White House thing: what actually happened was, an attempt WAS made to crack into the White House's Web page. They panicked and shut it down. Read the book and you'll see countless similar stories.)

This also related to John Westergaard's "Inferential Analysis" thing. USN&WR continued to stick to the Gulf War Virus story for some time after it's initial publication, claiming that "unidentified sources" in the Pentagon had confirmed it for them. What it actually was, some bored folks in the Pentagon merely perpetuated the joke for their own amusement . .. .. ..

But look out. Those dangers hackers and bogeymen are coming to get you. They'll turn off the lights, hack out your eyes, and -- gasp! -- even cut off the cable.

Hide y' wimmin and chillin's . .. you have been warned.

-- Stephen M. Poole, CET (smpoole7@bellsouth.net), June 05, 1999.

How dare you trivilize the gulf war virus as a hoax. There are over 300,000 men and women who are suffering from some very strange health problems. Over 20,000 of these individuals are no longer with us. Tell it to their grieving loved ones. Many of whom also experienced the symptoms of this strange illness. I know you are talking about computers, but I not. It is said that truth is the first casualty of war. Don't play jokes with names or talk games. Our country is involved in a very badass military showdown right now. If they don't act with integrity we will lose big time. Biological and chemical war are nothing to play with. The Real reason they stop the Iraq war because saddam threaten are cities with non conventional weapons if we went into bagdad with troops. And he had the means to deliver them. The Gulf war virus was our sad attempt to guess his battlefield bugs. They were dead wrong and our troops got sick. No Hoax just facts. WE are about to repeat that same mistake in kosovo,When you fail to learn from history,you are doomed to repeat the mistakes. Get ready for some unexpected consequences if our leaders don't allow a gracefull end to the kosovo horror show. No city is out of the reach of a wounded country with modern technology and a passion for revenge over lost loved ones and dignity being bombed into the ground. We better pray that for the sake of our soldiers there loved ones and our loved ones they find peace with grace and honor.

-- y2k aware mike (y2k aware mike @ conservation . com), June 05, 1999.

y2k aware mike,

You may be aware of Y2K, but you ain't aware of much else. I was speaking of the Gulf War COMPUTER Virus Hoax. COMPUTER. You know, like, machine. PC. Crunch numbers and all that.

It is OBVIOUS you didn't even bother to read the piece. You didn't even LOOK AT IT! Admit it.

Talk about knee-jerk reactions ...

-- Stephen M. Poole, CET (smpoole7@bellsouth.net), June 05, 1999.

The only destructive virus I know of is the pooleCrETin one...

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), June 05, 1999.

OK, I read the whole thing, and so I know a lot more about the Gulf War Computer Virus than I did before. Now, is there some relevance to Y2K, or is this just another one of Poole's "straw man" type posts? (Why do I suspect the latter....)

CET - Certified Enhanced Troll

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.com), June 05, 1999.

Stephen,

Perhaps you didn't read Y2Kaware Mike's sixth sentence?

Perhaps you had a knee jerk reaction?

-- Jill (jdance@mindspring.com), June 05, 1999.

Cess Pool;

What's your point? I hope it isn't hoax. And for the record you, asshole, had the knee jerk, didn't read, reaction. The other was passion, idiot!!!!!!!

-- FLAME AWAY (BLehman202@aol.com), June 05, 1999.

Cess Pool;

What's your point? I hope it isn't hoax. And for the record, you asshole, had the knee jerk, didn't read, reaction. The other was passion, idiot!!!!!!!

-- FLAME AWAY (BLehman202@aol.com), June 05, 1999.

My posts are so articulate and intelligent that I need to post them twice, you idiot!

-- SHAME AWAY (moron@moron.moron), June 05, 1999.

My posts are so articulate and intelligent that I need to post them twice, you idiot!!

-- SHAME AWAY (moron@moron.moron), June 05, 1999.

?????????????

-- ! (!@!.!), June 05, 1999.

Stephen,

Perhaps you didn't read Y2Kaware Mike's sixth sentence?

Perhaps you had a knee jerk reaction?

-- Jill (jdance@mindspring.com), June 05, 1999.

This is typical of Poole the fool. Newcomers, I advise staying away from any advice from the likes of Poole, cpr, Y2K Pro, or anyone else who smuggly predicts that y2k will be a 1 or 2.

-- a (a@a.a), June 05, 1999.

So Stephen Poole says that the government and the experts get things wrong all the time. Is he implying that Senators Bennett and Dodd are repeating unsubstantiated rumors?

What the government did get wrong the the mid-1990's was how long it would take to fix Y2K. The way things stand now, only about 10% of the computer systems have been deemed to be "mission critical" and yet the deadline was missed for fixing even that 10%.

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), June 05, 1999.

Kevin (mixesmusic) and Scott:

Why the name-change?

[Guessing again Mutha/Cherri?]

-- Investigator (slueth@truth.facts), June 05, 1999.

Never met a cue ball that enjoys getting poked as much as Stevie. Oh well. Got the day off and it's fun to be with my friends and shoot a little Poole.

-- Carlos (riffraff1@cybertime.net), June 05, 1999.

Investigator:

Why the name change?

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), June 05, 1999.

"Investigator",

Thanks for confirming that this site is being monitored. You wouldn't know who posted Chuck's home address on this forum, would you?

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), June 05, 1999.

You don't recognize a great piece of covert-action warfare disenformation when you see it, do you Poole? The story was released before Desert Storm began as an example of what might happen in the first case of large scale information warfare. The stories you're quoting are involved way after the fact. What's important is that the enemy believed the stories when they appeared in European, Asian and Middle Eastern press reports.

How much time and effort did the Iraqi's spend trying to fix their "infected" computer systems? How many Incoming Aircraft warnings did they ignore because the "just knew" that their air defense computers were whacked-out and lying to them? And how many allied aircrews weren't shot down or even engaged by Iraqi forces because they didn't trust their computers?

Just like Y2K, there's a lot more to the stories that you're missing.

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), June 05, 1999.

Stephen M. Poole - as sharp as a chemistry teacher's cardigan.

-- humpty (Iam_not_a_number@hotmail.com), June 06, 1999.

Investigater;

I posted the reaason to this forum the day I did it. Research the archives.

-- FLAME AWAY (BLehman202@aol.com), June 06, 1999.