Viruses:
General Advice
Further
Details about Viruses & their Prevention
A virus is a
programme designed by someone who thinks it's a real laugh to mess up people's
computers and waste others' time. Viruses can range from annoying messages on
the screen on a certain date to hard drive formatting (i.e. the disk gets wiped
clean). They can obviously be very dangerous.
Viruses are
normally transmitted by infected documents (for example word processor files),
or executable files (such as screensavers). A user must actually "use" the file
(i.e. copy, open, execute...), before the virus can infect the user's computer.
Viruses cannot be
carried in normal e-mails. The only possible way of introducing a
"virus" into an electronic message's text is by using a language called
JavaScript. (Note: the rest of this paragraph is more technical... skip it if
you don't understand it, it's not important). This is a web programming
language that allows designers to, for example, bring up a dialogue box in a
browser to ask the user a question. A programmer can design a JavaScript that
persistently brings up a new e-mail message window until your system crashes,
when you open the e-mail. You just restart the computer, and delete the e-mail.
A JavaScript cannot do anything worse than that, unless you say yes to a
plethora of dialogue boxes that your e-mail programme will bring up when the
script requests the system's permission to access, for example, the hard disk.
Quite honestly, anyone who is stupid enough to allow a script in an e-mail from
an unknown source access their hard disk either wants to scrap all their data
or is mad.
Any e-mail
programme that supports the usage of JavaScript in e-mails has the option of
disabling it. I would recommend that everyone did so, especially if they have
no experience in web programming. All users of Internet Explorer 4.x or
Netscape Navigator 4.x are affected by JavaScript enabled e-mail. Other e-mail
clients do not support it.
UPDATE:
Since this was written it has been discovered that there is a security in
Microsoft's Outlook Express e-mail client, which ships with Internet Explorer
5.0x. This allows a malicious person to include an emebedded ActiveX control in
an e-mail which can access your computer's file system, and potentially damage
it very drastically. Outlook Express does not give any warning of the embedded
control. A patch which fixes the vulnerability is available, see
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/default.asp. The patch will
then pop-up a warning telling you that the e-mail contains "unsafe
content", and asking you whether you want to run it. Treat this like an
attached file, and only choose "Yes" to run it if you are certain you
know what it is (it may be a virus, even if it's from someone you know!).
The only way that
a real virus can infect your computer is by a file being attached to the
e-mail. If you get ANY attached files from unknown sources, don't open them.
You can open the e-mail and read it, that won't hurt, but under no
circumstances open/save the attached file. Delete the e-mail when you have
finished with it. Remember that many viruses are distributed in screensavers
that will actually work, but at the same time as protecting your screen format
your hard disk. Overall, treat attached files on e-mails as you would a letter
bomb by post. Note that some viruses, when they infect a computer, can actually
attach themselves to all a user's outgoing messages: therefore, you may get a
message from someone you trust, with a virus attached. A good policy to follow
is to always tell someone what you've attached to a message.
Any e-mail with
the subject "RETURNED OR UNABLE TO DELIVER." (or similar), you should open the
message (not necessarily any attachments though), because this will be from
your ISP (Internet Service Provider), telling you that one of your e-mails
couldn't be delivered, probably because you typed the address wrong (it's not a
virus, as many people think!).
IBM, Microsoft,
Compaq, AOL, AT&T, CompuServe, and the rest of the computer industry giants
have never, and I would say will never, announce virus warnings. If ever you
see them associated with this kind of thing, it's a hoax. If it were McAfee or
Symantec, it might be more believable, as these are two big virus checker
companies, but no one else.
E-mails that say
things like "The virus will attach itself to your computer chips and destroy
them in a puff of smoke" (or something somewhat less obvious), are complete
rubbish. Viruses may sometimes be able to indirectly physically damage your
hard disk, but nothing else. Your computer will not go up in smoke, nor will
your chips short circuit.
When an e-mail
says, "not many people know about this", it's true! The only person who knows
about this completely fictional virus at first is the idiot who writes the
e-mail in the first place. On behalf of all the I.T. professionals out there,
if ever that person reads this, we'd love to wring your neck.
It's a good idea
to keep your virus checker up to date: new viruses emerge every day,
and consequently to be adequately protected you should get new updates at least
every month. Most virus checker companies offer this service free of charge if
you buy their products.
Finally, virus
e-mails that have a sender's address mentioned in them can easily be disproved
much of the time by sending e-mail to the "address". Most of the time you'll
get an error e-mail from your ISP saying that they couldn't deliver the message
because the address doesn't exist.
Download this
document:
Word 97 Document (22 KB)
General
Advice on Viruses
Macro
Viruses
E-mail
Viruses (& Hoaxes)
Notes
& Disclaimer
Links
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Macro
Viruses
A brief synopsis
of what they are, and what they are capable of. Visual Basic macros are
currently some of the most powerful and widespread viruses.
If you use
Microsoft Word 95 or later, this is a must read.
E-mail
Viruses
Many "virus
warnings" get forwarded around the net... However: which ones are true,
and which are just hoaxes?
Find out what
viruses can actually spread to your computer from e-mails.
General
Advice
There are many
things you can do to avoid having the problems of a virus on your computer
system.
Here is some
general advice on virus prevention, mostly to do with the Internet.
Notes
& Disclaimer
Here are a few
notes on the documents that are on this site, and those that are downloadable.
Also, please read
the disclaimer here: it involves limitation of liability on my part on your
usage of the information provided here.
Links
Some general
links to different virus checker software companies, other information on
viruses, and sites which provide up to date information on viruses which are
new.
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