Users are urged not to foward chain letters to their friends and
family.
IT security firm Sophos has reminded internet users of the
nuisance of email hoaxes as the British Government announced it is
taking unprecedented steps to combat a chain letter that has been
widely distributed across the internet.
The "Holocaust
Ban" email hoax claims that the Holocaust is no longer going to
be studied in UK schools because of fears of offending Muslims. Ed
Balls, British Secretary of State for Children, Schools and
Families, has issued a statement to
media and embassies worldwide denouncing the email as a hoax.
Part of the chain letter email reads as follows:
Recently this week, UK removed The Holocaust from its school
curriculum because it "offended" the Moslem population which claims
it never occurred. This is a frightening portent of the fear that
is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving into
it.
This e-mail is intended to reach 40 million people
worldwide! Join us and be a link in the memorial chain and help us
distribute it around the world.Please send this e-mail to 10 people
you know and ask them to continue the memorial chain.
"It is simply not true that UK schools are banned from teaching
about the Holocaust, and anyone forwarding messages like these is
unwittingly feeding an urban legend," said Graham Cluley, senior
technology consultant for Sophos. "We have seen many reports of
this chain letter and it's clear that this message is not just
propagating via traditional email but also via social networking
websites like Facebook where people forward nonsense messages to
all of their friends without necessarily engaging their
brains."
Experts at Sophos note that some variants of the chain letter
claim that the teaching ban is at the University of Kentucky rather
than the United Kingdom - presumably because of a confusion over
the term "UK".
"Hoaxes waste valuable bandwidth, impact staff productivity and
can even place email addresses into the wrong hands. They have been
a problem for years, but this must be the first time that a
government has taken such firm action to debunk one," continued
Cluley. "Email spreads like wildfire and forwarding one copy could
result in 100 more being sent - break the chain by hitting the
delete button, and learn not to believe everything you read in your
email."
In a separate initiative announced today, Balls announced that
two pupils from every sixth form and college in the UK would be
invited to visit the former Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz,
Poland.
Sophos experts recommend that computer users be wary of all
unsolicited emails, and protect their email gateways with a
consolidated product to defend against
spam, phishing, viruses and spyware.
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.