From CNET -- an excerpt from "Perspectives" by Margie Wylie on the debunking of FBI computer crime quacks by Crypt Newsletter editor George Smith:
January 9, 1997
FBI Folly
Pierre Salinger should get a chuckle out of this. The December issue of the following portion FBI's Law Enforcement Bulletin of an article on [computer crime] describes five "new insidious viruses" that don't exist. They're jokes. No, not hoaxes, but the equivalent of geek knock-knock jokes . . .
Red-faced over the article, the LEB jerked the offending paragraphs . . . but the paper magazine, errors intact, has already been mailed to about 55,000 subscribers . . .
. . . [the] gaffe was brought to light on the Web pages of Rob Rosenberger and George C. Smith, two virus experts who present the Computer Virus Hysteria Awards . . .
Critical thinking seems to be in short supply everywhere in modern society, not just the Internet . . . [and] There was a time when Ph.D.s, award-winning journalists, and the FBI were considered infallible authorities. It's corny and a cliche, but the global network is a means of challenging directly the authorities' versions of the truth . . .