Internet just a hoax, say security experts

Computer users were today counting the cost of the latest emailed hoax to clog up inboxes the world over.

The email, which describes the alleged creation of a worldwide system of inter-connected computers, was described by one security expert as "plainly ridiculous".

The text of the message describes a vast network of machines (the so-called "internet") and details the unique power of this network to "free the individual from the controls of traditional media and to empower citizens to communicate person to person across the world".

A spokesman for anti-virus firm McAfee said: "This hoax is clearly pandering to people's selfish desire to see technology as an enabling force. For some reason people are prepared to believe this kind of thing when it's emailed to them by a friend or colleague but if they took a moment to think about it they'd realise that if this 'internet' really did exist it would be merely a mechanism for spreading porn, pirated music and decade-old urban myths."

Officials from the Ministry of Big Numbers estimated that if each of the UK's 29 million workers spent five minutes discussing and debating the contents of the email, a staggering 2.4 million man-hours of productivity would be lost. The cost to businesses could be upward of £240 million.

Detailed analysis of the offending email suggests that a shady American group known only as ARPANET were behind many of the ideas contained in the hoax message but a Briton, Tim Berners-Lee, is widely believed to have popularised the concept whilst adding his own embellishments in the 1990s.