James Delahunty
9 Oct 2010 23:03
Graham Cluley, a security expert at Sophos, has written about an Internet rumor that predicts a virus will spread across the Internet on October 10, 2010. More specific rumors say it will happen at exactly 10:10am. Of course, it sounds utterly ridiculous but the fact is these rumors do incite panic for some reason.
Cluley also had to debunk similar rumors back in 2003, when many believed a virus would start infecting computers on March 3rd, 2003. These dates are specific because of how they look: 10/10/10 and 03/03/03. "It's just the kind of scare that people love to murmur about, and share with their online friends, but I'm afraid it has no basis in fact," Cluley writes.
"The truth is that there is malicious software which triggers every day of the year - so worrying about one particular date or time is actually counter-productive, as it implies that you should take less care on other dates. The 10/10/10 rumour, just like the 03/03/03 one, is utter codswallop."
"And yes, I know that 101010 is binary for decimal 42 (the alleged answer to "Life, The Universe and Everything" if you're a fan of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). But it's still not any reason to worry any more than normal!"