Re: UKNM: VIRUS WARNING: Summary

[Ben Thompson]

Sam,


I'll modify one thing in the summary (probably because I was not clear

enough the first time around).


As many macros are now macro viruses (ie contained within a word or excel

document) an attachment need only be opened to be read to infect your

machine, it does not need to be executed.


At the same time remember that HTML and Image documents cannot contain a

virus (only documents for programs that contain a scripting or macro

language).


yours,


Ben




>Hopefully (fingers very crossed) this covers the issues raised by the whole

>email virus thang. From a tech perspective if there's more, email me direct

>and I'll compile postings rather than re-tread the same ground again.

>

>To summarise the virus situation:

>

>* You can get a virus from an email message _only_ if it is contained in an

>attachment to that email message _and_ the email attachment is executed.

>* Make sure your email program does not execute attachments when

>downloading your email, this is the default setting on most programs, so

>don't panic!

>* Good Times and all the other email hoaxes have taken their fare share of

>'hoax bandwidth' since the earliest days of the net. I've lost count of the

>number of times I've seen them now!

>

>If you want to do something to protect yourself against viruses (virtual

>ones - in the real world, you have to take two aspirin and come back in the

>morning, at least that's what the doc tells me!), install a decent virus

>checking program such as:

>

>McAfee (now comes bundled with Eudora 4.0) (http://www.mcafee.com)

>Norton AntiVirus  (http://www.sarc.com)

>

>Or you can use email forwarding services like Bigfoot

>(http://www.bigfoot.com), which automatically scan email with virus

checkers.

>

>

>Toodle Pip

>

>Sam

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