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Re: [Fwd: Virus via E-MAIL]
>Date: Mon, 22 Apr 1996 21:10:45 +0200
>Errors-To: sikorski@chem.uw.edu.pl
>Reply-To: muntain@gpfn.sk.ca
>Originator: genpol@chem.uw.edu.pl
>Sender: genpol@chem.uw.edu.pl
>From: Beverly Muntain <muntain@gpfn.sk.ca>
>To: Multiple recipients of list <genpol@chem.uw.edu.pl>
>Subject: Re: [Fwd: Virus via E-MAIL]
>X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas
>X-Comment: Polska lista genealogiczna
>
>On Mon, 22 Apr 1996, C. Martin/J. Schlieffers wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> --------------- Forwarded Message ---------------
>>
>> From: "Dov M. Margalit", INTERNET:vod52@singnet.com.sg
>> To: C. Martin/J. Schlieffers, 74353,2411
>> Date: Mon, Apr 22, 1996, 4:44
>>
>> RE: [Fwd: Killer Internet E-MAIL]
>
>-----8<--- snip!
>
>The Good Times Virus is a hoax. Although I've known this since the day I
>started playing on the internet, I recently found this FAQ posted to a
>list where the 'virus' warning had been posted:
>
>
>>
>> ***********
>>
>>
>> Good Times Virus Hoax FAQ
>>
>> by Les Jones
>> macfaq@aol.com
>> lesjones@usit.net
>>
>> April 24, 1995
>>
>>
>>
>> This document can be freely reproduced in any medium,
>> as long as it is distributed unmodified and in its entirety.
>>
>>
>> -------------------------------------
>> Is the Good Times email virus a hoax?
>> -------------------------------------
>>
>> Yes. It's a hoax.
>>
>> America Online, government computer security
>> agencies, and makers of anti-virus software
>> have declared Good Times a hoax. See
>> Online References at the end of the FAQ.
>>
>> Since the hoax began in December of 1994, no copy
>> of the alleged virus was ever found, nor have
>> there been verified first hand reports of
>> the virus.
>>
>>
>>
>> -------------------------
>> Why should I believe you?
>> -------------------------
>>
>> Unlike the warnings that have been passed around,
>> the FAQ is signed and dated. I've included my email
>> address, and the email addresses of contributors, for
>> verification. I've also provided online references at the
>> end of the FAQ so that you can confirm this information
>> for yourself.
>>
>>
>> ----------------------------------
>> What is the Good Times virus hoax?
>> ----------------------------------
>>
>> The story is that a virus called Good Times is being carried by email. Just
>> reading a message from someone named Good Times, or reading a
>> message with
>> Good Times in the subject line, will erase your hard drive. Needless to say,
>> it's a hoax, but a lot of people believe it.
>>
>> The original message ended with instructions to "Forward this to all your
>> friends," and many people did just that. Warnings about Good Times have
>> been widely distributed on mailing lists, Usenet newsgroups, and message
>> boards.
>>
>> The original hoax started in early December, 1994. It sprang up again in
>> March of 1995. In mid-April, people began distributing a previously obscure
>> message, and added. Worried that Good Times would never go away, I
>> decided to write the FAQ and a separate report that chronicles the hoax's
>> history.
>>
>>
>> -------------------------------
>> What is the effect of the hoax?
>> -------------------------------
>>
>> For those who already know it's a hoax, it's a nuisance to read the
>> repeated warnings. For people who don't know any better, it causes
>> needless concern and lost productivity.
>>
>> The virus hoax infects mailing lists, bulletin boards, and Usenet
>> newsgroups.
>> Worried system administrators needlessly worry their employees by posting
>> dire warnings. The hoax is not limited to the United States. It has appeared
>> in many English-speaking countries.
>>
>> As Adam J Kightley (adamjk@cogs.susx.ac.uk) put it, "The cases of
>> 'infection'
>> I came across all tended to result from the message getting into the hands
>> of senior non-computing personnel. Those with the ability and authority to
>> spread it widely, without the knowledge to spot its nonsensical content."
>>
>> Some of the companies that have fallen for the hoax include AT&T,
>> CitiBank,
>> NBC, Hughes Aircraft, Texas Instruments, and dozens or hundreds of
>> others.
>>
>> Good Times has made its way around Washington, D.C. Some of the
>> government agencies that have reportedly fallen victim to the hoax include
>> the
>> Department of Defense, the FCC, NASA, and numerous colleges.
>>
>> The virus hoax has occasionally escaped into the popular media.
>> ez018982@betty.ucdavis.edu reports that on April 2, 1995, during the Tom
>> Sullivan show on KFBK 1530 AM radio in Sacramento, California, a police
>> officer warned listeners not to read email labeled "Good Times", and to
>> report the sender to the police. I've called Business Media Services
>> (916-453-8802) and ordered a tape of the show. .WAV at 11:00.
>>
>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------
>> What did the original warning (Happy Chanukah) say?
>> ---------------------------------------------------
>>
>> This is the canonical original message as I received it, and as it was
>> quoted in the CIAC report. Like all quoted material in the FAQ, it includes
>> the original punctuation:
>>
>> ----Begin quoted material----
>>
>> Here is some important information. Beware of a file called Goodtimes.
>>
>> Happy Chanukah everyone, and be careful out there.There is a virus on
>> America
>> Online being sent by E-Mail. If you get anything called "Good Times",
>> DON'T read it or download it. It is a virus that will erase your hard drive.
>> Forward this to all your friends. It may help them a lot.
>>
>> ----End quoted material----
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------
>> What's the other commonly-distributed warning (ASCII)?
>> ------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> The "happy Chanukah" greeting in the original message dates it, so more
>> recent hoax eruptions have used a different message. The one below can
>> be identified because it claims that simply loading Good Times into the
>> computer's ASCII buffer can activate the virus, so I call it ASCII.
>>
>> Karyn Pichnarczyk remembers the ASCII message from the original hoax in
>> December of 1994, though I never saw it. Mikko Hypponen
>> (Mikko.Hypponen@datafellows.fi) sent me a copy of this warning that
>> dates back to December 2, 1994. It's now the basis for the most common
>> message warnings.
>>
>>
>> ----Begin quoted material----
>>
>> Thought you might like to know...
>>
>> Apparently , a new computer virus has been engineered by a user of
>> America
>> Online that is unparalleled in its destructive capability. Other, more
>> well-known viruses such as Stoned, Airwolf, and Michaelangelo pale in
>> comparison to the prospects of this newest creation by a warped mentality.
>>
>> What makes this virus so terrifying is the fact that no program needs to be
>> exchanged for a new computer to be infected. It can be spread through
>> the existing e-mail systems of the InterNet.
>>
>> Luckily, there is one sure means of detecting what is now known as the
>> "Good
>> Times" virus. It always travels to new computers the same way - in a text
>> e-mail message with the subject line reading simply "Good Times".
>> Avoiding infection is easy once the file has been received - not reading it.
>> The act of loading the file into the mail server's ASCII buffer causes the
>> "Good
>> Times" mainline program to initialize and execute.
>>
>> The program is highly intelligent - it will send copies of itself to everyone
>> whose e-mail address is contained in a received-mail file or a sent-mail
file,
>> if it can find one. It will then proceed to trash the computer it is running
>> on.
>>
>> The bottom line here is - if you receive a file with the subject line "Good
>> TImes", delete it immediately! Do not read it! Rest assured that whoever's
>> name was on the "From:" line was surely struck by the virus. Warn your
>> friends and local system users of this newest threat to the InterNet! It
could
>> save them a lot of time and money.
>>
>> ----End quoted material---
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------
>> What's the popular variation on ASCII (Infinite Loop)?
>> ------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Material is sometimes added to ASCII as it is forwarded and reforwarded.
>> One common variation mentions a (long since retracted) FCC report, and
>> claims that Good Times can destroy a computer's processor by placing the
>> processor in a "nth-complexity infinite binary loop," which is a
>> fancy-sounding piece of science fiction.
>>
>>
>> ----Begin quoted material----
>>
>>
>> The FCC released a warning last Wednesday concerning a matter of major
>> importance to any regular user of the InterNet. Apparently, a new
>> computer virus has been engineered by a user of America Online that is
>> unparalleled in
>> its destructive capability. Other, more well-known viruses such as Stoned,
>> Airwolf, and Michaelangelo pale in comparison to the prospects of this
>> newest creation by a warped mentality.
>> What makes this virus so terrifying, said the FCC, is the fact that no
>> program needs to be exchanged for a new computer to be infected. It can
>> be spread through the existing e-mail systems of the InterNet. Once a
>> computer is infected, one of several things can happen. If the computer
>> contains a hard drive, that will most likely be destroyed. If the program is
>> not stopped, the computer's processor will be placed in an nth-complexity
>> infinite binary loop - which can severely damage the processor if left run
>>
>>
>> ning that way too long. Unfortunately, most novice computer users will not
>> realize what is happening until it is far too late.
>>
>>
>> ----End quoted material---
>>
>>
>> ---------------------------
>> What was the CIAC bulletin? ---------------------------
>>
>> On December 6, 1994, the U.S. Department of Energy's CIAC (Computer
>> Incident
>> Advisory Capability) issued a bulletin declaring the Good Times virus a hoax
>> and an urban legend. The bulletin was widely quoted as an antidote to the
>> hoax. The original document can be found at the address in Online
>> References at the end of the FAQ.
>>
>>
>> ----Begin quoted material----
>>
>>
>> THE "Good Times" VIRUS IS AN URBAN LEGEND
>>
>> In the early part of December, CIAC started to receive information requests
>> about a supposed "virus" which could be contracted via America OnLine,
>> simply by reading a message.
>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> | Here is some important information. Beware of a file called Goodtimes. |
>> | |
>> | Happy Chanukah everyone, and be careful out there. There is a virus on
>> |
>> | America Online being sent by E-Mail. If you get anything called "Good |
>> | Times", DON'T read it or download it. It is a virus that will erase your |
>> | hard drive. Forward this to all your friends. It may help them a lot. |
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> THIS IS A HOAX. Upon investigation, CIAC has determined that this
>> message originated from both a user of America Online and a student at a
>> university at approximately the same time, and it was meant to be a hoax.
>>
>> CIAC has also seen other variations of this hoax, the main one is that any
>> electronic mail message with the subject line of "xxx-1" will infect your
>> computer.
>>
>> This rumor has been spreading very widely. This spread is due mainly to
>> the fact that many people have seen a message with "Good Times" in the
>> header.
>> They delete the message without reading it, thus believing that they have
>> saved themselves from being attacked. These first-hand reports give a
>> false sense of credibility to the alert message.
>>
>> There has been one confirmation of a person who received a message
>> with
>> "xxx-1" in the header, but an empty message body. Then, (in a panic,
>> because he had heard the alert), he checked his PC for viruses (the first
>> time he checked his machine in months) and found a pre-existing virus on
>> his machine.
>> He incorrectly came to the conclusion that the E-mail message gave him
>> the virus (this particular virus could NOT POSSIBLY have spread via an
>> E-mail message). This person then spread his alert.
>>
>> As of this date, there are no known viruses which can infect merely
>> through reading a mail message. For a virus to spread some program must
>> be executed.
>> Reading a mail message does not execute the mail message. Yes, Trojans
>> have been found as executable attachments to mail messages, the most
>> notorious being the IBM VM Christmas Card Trojan of 1987, also the TERM
>> MODULE Worm
>> (reference CIAC Bulletin B-7) and the GAME2 MODULE Worm (CIAC
>> Bulletin B-12).
>> But this is not the case for this particular "virus" a
>>
>>
>> lert.
>>
>> If you encounter this message being distributed on any mailing lists, simply
>> ignore it or send a follow-up message stating that this is a false rumor.
>>
>> Karyn Pichnarczyk
>> CIAC Team ciac@llnl.gov
>>
>>
>> ----End quoted material----
>>
>>
>> --------------------------------
>> Exactly when did the hoax start?
>> --------------------------------
>>
>> December 2, 1994 is often quoted as the beginning of the hoax, but some
>> of the AOL forward message headers in the copy I received put the date at
>> December 1. One non-AOL header is dated November 29, though that
>> date could easily have been forged.
>>
>> Also, notice the text of the original message as it was sent to me, and
>> quoted in the CIAC report:
>>
>> Here is some important information. Beware of a file called Goodtimes.
>>
>> Happy Chanukah everyone, and be careful out there.There is a virus on
>> America
>> Online being sent by E-Mail. If you get anything called "Good Times",
>> DON'T read it or download it. It is a virus that will erase your hard drive.
>> Forward this to all your friends. It may help them a lot.
>>
>> The first paragraph suggests that someone was forwarding the information
>> in the second paragraph. A seasonal greeting like "Happy Chanukah" is
>> almost never placed in the second paragraph of a letter, suggesting even
>> more strongly that this message was repeating information from someone
>> else.
>>
>>
>> ---------------------
>> Who started the hoax?
>> ---------------------
>>
>> No one knows who started the original hoax. You'll meet people who think
>> they know who started it, or where it started. They are mis-informed. Show
>> them the FAQ. They're just repeating second hand information. The truth is,
>> no one knows who started Good Times. I discuss this further in my report.
>>
>> Now that new outbreaks of the hoax have begun, it's not especially
>> important who starts the rumors. Even if you catch the latest hoaxster,
>> there will always be another one. We're better off spending our time
>> educating new
>> Internet users, and distributing the FAQ whenever Good Times erupts.
>>
>>
>> -------------------------------
>> How do you know all this stuff?
>> -------------------------------
>>
>> I investigated the original hoax in December of 1994. I'll disclose the full
>> details in my report.
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------
>> When will your report be ready, Les?
>> ------------------------------------
>>
>> Soon. I'm working on a complete history of the hoax. It promises to be good
>> reading. The report provides a detailed history of events and public
>> opinion.
>> It also suggests a way to counter hoaxes and other thought viruses, and
>> recounts my discovery of the NVP Trojan horse. When it's finished, it will
>> be freely distributable, and will be available from my ftp site at
usit.net in
>> the
>> pub/lesjones directory.
>>
>>
>> ---------------------------
>> Is an email virus possible?
>> ---------------------------
>>
>> No. There is no way for a virus to spread simply by reading email.
>>
>> A few people have gone through mental gymnastics trying to dream up a
>> way such a thing could be done. The closest anyone has come is to infect
>> a program with a virus, encode the program into text with uuencode,
>> binhex, etc., and email the encoded program. The person receiving the
>> email would have to download the mail to their hard drive, decode it, and
>> run the infected program. That's not even close to the claims made for the
>> spread of
>> Good Times.
>>
>> You should, of course, be wary of any file attachments a stranger sends
>> you.
>> At the least, you should check such file attachments for viruses before
>> running them.
>>
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------
>> How can I protect myself from viruses in general?
>> -------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Use a virus checker regularly. Freeware, shareware, and commercial
>> anti-virus programs are widely available. Which program you use isn't as
>> important as how you use it. Most people get into trouble because they
>> never bother to check their computer for viruses.
>>
>> Most viruses spread through floppy disks, so isolating yourself from online
>> services and the Internet will not protect you from viruses. In fact, you're
>> probably safer if you're online, simply because you'll have access to
>> anti-viral software and information.
>>
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------
>> What can I find anti-viral information on the Internet?
>> -------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Usenet newsgroups
>> _________________ comp.virus
>>
>>
>> Mailing lists
>> _____________
>> VIRUS-L is for discussions of viruses and anti-viral products. Send email to
>> listserv@lehigh.edu. In the body of the message, include the line "sub
>> virus-l your-name" (without the quotes).
>>
>> VALERT-L is for announcements of new viruses. Send email to
>> listserv@lehigh.edu. In the body of the message, include the line "sub
>> valert-l your-name" (again, without the quotes).
>>
>>
>> FTP sites
>> _________ cert.org in pub/virus-l/docs/
>>
>> Contains information about viruses and anti-virus products, with pointers to
>> other FTP sites.
>>
>>
>> Comp.virus FAQ on the World Wide Web
>> ____________________________________
>> http://www.datafellows.fi/vl-faq.htm#A7
>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------
>> Was the hoax a sort of virus itself?
>> ------------------------------------
>>
>> Yes, but it wasn't a computer virus. It was more like a social virus or a
>> thought virus.
>>
>> When someone on alt.folklore.urban asked if the virus was for real, Clay
>> Shirky (clays@panix.com) answered:
>>
>> "Its for real. Its an opportunistic self-replicating email virus which tricks
>> its
>> host into replicating it, sometimes adding as many as 200,000 copies at a
>> go. It works by finding hosts with defective parsing apparatus which
>> prevents them from understanding that a piece of email which says there is
>> an email virus and then asking them to remail the message to all their
>> friends is the virus itself."
>>
>> Shirky eloquently described what a lot of people were thinking. Good
>> Times was a virus, but not a computer virus, just as a computer virus was a
>> virus, but not a biological virus.
>>
>> So what is a virus? To a biologist, a virus is a snippet of DNA that must
>> infect a host organism to survive and reproduce. To be contagious, a virus
>> usually carries instructions that cause the host to engage in certain
>> pathological activities (such as sneezing and coughing) that spread the
>> infection to other organisms.
>>
>> To a computer programmer, a virus is a snippet of computer code that must
>> infect a host program to spread. To be contagious, a computer virus
>> usually causes the host program to engage in certain pathological activities
>> that spread the infection to other programs
>>
>> >From this perspective, it's easy to see the Good Times hoax as a sort of
>> thought virus. To be contagious, a thought virus causes the host to
>> engage in certain pathological activities that spread the infection.
>>
>> In the case of Good Times, the original strain (happy Chanukah) explicitly
>> told people to "forward this to all your friends." The other major viral
strain
>> (infinite loop) encourages people to "Please be careful and forward this
>> mail to anyone you care about," and "Warn your friends and local system
>> users of this newest threat to the InterNet!"
>>
>> Likewise, the stories of an FCC modem tax encourage people to tell their
>> friends and post the warning on other BBSes. David Rhodes' Make Money
>> Fast scam instructs people to re-post the message to as many as ten
>> bulletin boards.
>>
>> In _The Selfish Gene_ (1976, University of Oxford Press), Oxford
>> evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins extends the principles in his book
>> from biology to human culture. To make the transition, Dawkins proposes a
>> cultural replicator analogous to genes. He calls these replicators memes:
>>
>> "Examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions,
>> ways of making pots or of building arches. Just as genes propagate
>> themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via sperm or
>> eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from
>> brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called
>> imitation. If a scientist hears, or reads about, a good idea, he passes it on
>> to his colleagues and students. He mentions it in his articles and
lectures. If
>> the ide
>>
>>
>> a catches on, it may be said to propagate itself, spreading from brain to
>> brain. As my colleague N. K. Humphrey neatly summed up an earlier draft
>> of this chapter: "...memes should be regarded as living structures, not just
>> metaphorically, but technically. When you plant a fertile meme in my mind
>> you literally parasitize my brain, turning it into a vehicle for the meme's
>> propagation in just the way that a virus may parasitize the genetic
>> mechanism of a host cell.""
>>
>> Amazingly, when I read alt.folklore.computers looking for research material,
>> two people had already mentioned Dawkins' memes. One of them referred
>> to an article in the April 8, 1995 _New Scientist_ about something called
>> the Meme
>> Research Group at the University of California, San Francisco. The article
>> noted that the group was reticent about details, and didn't mention a
>> person's name of phone number. I had no luck it trying to locate the group
>> via USF's operator assistance or computing department, and I'
>>
>>
>> m still waiting for someone to reply to my email.
>>
>> I am not a memeticist, and a real memeticist might take umbrage at my
>> explanation of the concept. To learn more, I encourage you to visit the
>> alt.memetics newsgroup on Usenet, and the alt.memetics home page on
>> the World
>> Wide Web (http://www.xs4all.nl/~hingh/alt.memetics/). Though we've
>> talked about memes in terms of viruses (a common analogy), the concept
>> of a meme is neither good nor bad. The idea of "Do unto others as you
>> would have them do unto you" is as much a meme as the Good Times
>> hoax.
>>
>>
>> -----------------------------------------------
>> What's the best way to control a thought virus?
>> -----------------------------------------------
>>
>> Create a counter virus like this one as an antidote. To make the counter
>> virus contagious, include instructions such as, "The Good Times email
>> virus is a hoax. If anyone repeats the hoax, please show them the FAQ."
>>
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------
>> What are some other hoaxes and urban legends on the Internet?
>> -------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> The FCC Modem Tax
>>
>> Every so often someone posts a dire warning that the FCC is considering a
>> tax on modems and online services. The warning encourages you to tell
>> your friends so they can take political action. It's a hoax. It's been
going on
>> for the five years I've been online, and probably much longer. If you'll
>> notice, the warnings don't include a date or a bill number.
>>
>>
>> Make Money Fast
>>
>> If you haven't seen a Make Money Fast message, call your local
>> anthropology department. They might be interested in studying you.
>> Devised by David Rhodes in 1987 or 1988, Make Money Fast (sometimes
>> distributed on BBSes as a file called fastcash.txt) is an electronic
version of
>> a chain letter pyramid scheme. You're supposed to send money to the ten
>> people on the list, then add your name to the list and repost the chain
>> letter, committing federal wire fraud in the process. Posting a Make Money
>> Fast message i
>>
>>
>> s one sure way to lose your Internet account.
>>
>>
>> Craig Shergold needs your get well cards
>>
>> Craig Shergold is a UK resident who was dying of cancer. He wanted to
>> get in the Guinness Book of World Records for having received the most
>> get well cards. When people heard of the poor boy's wish, they began
>> sending him postcards. And they kept sending him postcards, and never
>> stopped. Shergold is now in full remission. He was listed in the Guinness
>> Book of World Records in 1991. He really does not want your postcards
>> any more, and neither does his hometown post office.
>>
>> These are just the urban legends that you're likely to encounter on the
>> Internet. There are many more in real life that you probably believe. I won't
>> give them away, but here are some clues: peanut butter, Neiman
>> Marcus/Mrs.
>> Fields, Rod Stewart, and the Newlywed Game. For more information, read
>> the alt.folklore.urban FAQ, listed in Online References at the end of the
>> FAQ.
>>
>>
>> -----------------
>> Online References
>> -----------------
>>
>> CIAC Notes 94-04 and 94-05d
>> ---------------------------
>> FTP to ciac.llnl.gov and look in the /pub/ciac/sectools/unix directory.
>>
>> The URL is ftp://ciac.llnl.gov/pub/ciac/sectools/unix/
>>
>> The URL for the CIAC home page on the World Wide Web is:
>> http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/
>>
>>
>> alt.folklore.urban FAQ
>> --------------------------
>> Available via FTP from cathouse.org in the
>> /pub/cathouse/urban.legends/AFU.faq directory.
>>
>> Also available on the World Wide Web at
>> http://cathouse.org/UrbanLegends/AFUFAQ/
>>
>>
>> America Online's official statement
>> ----------------------------------- keyword "virus2" on America Online
>>
>>
>> The Good Times Virus Hoax FAQ (this document)
>> ---------------------------------------------
>> FTP to usit.net and look in the pub/lesjones directory. The URL is:
>>
>> ftp://usit.net/pub/lesjones/GoodTimes-HoaxFAQ.txt
>>
>> **********
>>
>>
>>
>> Terry Dugas
>> Southwest Florida Public Television
>> Ft. Myers/Naples, FL
>> dugast@naples.net
>> http://www.naples.net/~dugast/ (My Stuff)
>> http://www.naples.net/media/wsfp (The Company Stuff)
>>
>> Celine:
>> "Quand j'entends parler de revolver, je sors ma culture".
>> -- When I hear someone talking about guns, I pull out my culture.
>>
>>
>
>
>
>Beverly Muntain
>Secretary
>Great Plains Free-Net, Inc.
>Regina, Saskatchewan.
>
>
>
Bob, Lucinda and Tabby Welenc
<rjwelenc@mail.erols.com>
(410) 969-8303
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