'Fax virus' panicked a manager and sparked job-killing Reply-All incident
The 1990s called with a reminder that in the time before ransomware, infosec panics could be quite quaint
On Call By Friday it's only natural to look back upon the working week with a certain nostalgia, an emotion The Register celebrates each week in On Call – the reader-contributed column that shares your tales of tech support trauma.
This week, meet a reader we'll Regomize as "Seamus" who has fond memories of working as a technology consultant at a government department in the late 1990s – the dying years of the fax machine*.
Faxes were slipping away because documents sent using the devices often arrived as a blurry mess, sometimes with a certain ransom note aesthetic, thanks to primitive scanning tech, low bitrates, and the cheap printers often used in low-end machines.
That didn't stop spammers and scammers sending dodgy faxes, or office pranksters sending funny faxes to friends.
One day, the fax machine in Seamus's office spat out a message that warned a computer virus had already infected all of the department's Windows 95 machines.
The fax claimed the virus would manifest at any moment, erase data, fatally overheat PC processors, and require staff to use pen and paper for 24 hours.
"The very act of sending it by Fax belied the security-consciousness of the sender, who rather than using the then only somewhat trusted email decided an analog sideband was the safest way to share the bad news," Seamus told On Call.
Someone on staff was so scared by the fax that they scanned it – making its appearance even more sketchy – then attached it to an email they sent to everyone in the department.
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As the department came to terms with its fate, a Reply-All email arrived, notifying all hands that the fax was a hoax – and criticizing the sender for having fallen for it and wasting everyone's time.
"I later heard from a well-placed source that the writer of the first email was a senior executive, who while perhaps not being supremely technical, was at least well-intentioned," Seamus told On Call.
The Reply-All email came from a lowly consultant, who was let go for his criticism of the exec who sent the mail.
"The rest of us consultants chalked it up as a lesson in professionalism," Seamus told On Call.
Have you fallen for a hoax? Or had to explain to a user that their fears are unfounded? Here's a completely true story: Click here to send On Call an email explaining your story, and we might just use it on a future Friday. ®
* Readers under 30 can find an explanation for fax machines here.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
