GISP: GIAC Information Security Professional Certification

A hoax is a message—often distributed via email—that contains false or exaggerated claims, frequently about nonexistent viruses or fake security threats, intended to alarm recipients or prompt them to take unnecessary or harmful actions (such as deleting legitimate system files). Unlike an actual virus or Trojan horse, a hoax does not contain malicious code; it relies on social engineering and the spread of misinformation. Spam refers to unsolicited bulk email regardless of content, Rlogin is a remote terminal protocol, and Blowfish is a symmetric-key block cipher, none of which describe deceptive virus-warning messages.