FRIENDS AND FAMILY VIRUS

n.

A computer virus that infects a machine and then replicates by e-mailing copies of itself to people in the user's address book.

Trojan worms resort to all sorts of unusual and clever tactics to persuade users to activate them. The Hybris Trojan worm promises recipients a ribald tale involving Snow White and the seven dwarfs. One common type of Trojan worm, often called aFriends and Family virusafter MCI's famous marketing program for long-distance services, disguises messages bearing the worm so that they appear to have been sent by someone familiar.

— Brett Glass, "Know Your Enemy,"PC Magazine, May 8, 2001

Friends and Family VirusA computer virus that replicates by using an infected machine to send out email messages either by accessing the machine's address book or by replying to incoming messages.

— Gareth Branwyn, "Jargon Watch,"Wired, September, 1999

digital pathogen

framily

friends-and-family shares

information warfare

logic bomb

malware

MCI project

ransomware

targeted Trojan horse

togethering

Hacking and Hackers

Programming and Software