| DISCLAIMER: We
offer the following information to our customers and Internet readers as a
service to them. This information is based solely on our personal
experience handling malicious email, which has become extensive in recent
weeks. There are many other ways to protect yourself from computer viruses
received off the Internet and we recommend that you explore whatever means
you find to protect the valuable information contained on your
computer.
VIRUS SOFTWARE: We urge you to invest in quality
anti-virus software: Norton or McAfee are the most common. We have found,
however, that Norton has not protected us against all Trojan Horses and
worms. There are other products that run different scans of your computer
that you may want to use to give you additional protection. (House Call
Anti-virus is free on-line. Search at www.Google.com)
In the last several months, I (Lizbeth) have been using PC-cillin
Anti-Virus, which has performed well.
RECOGNIZING VIRUS EMAIL: Many of these emails
have Re: or Fw: in the subject line, although others do not. The senders
are usually meaningless names, or parts of names, and in general the
emails don't look like serious email from a legitimate sender. Chances
are, the email addressees are not responsible for the email's
transmission. Email addresses are being picked up off the net and used
without the knowledge of the person who owns the email address. So far, we
no of no way to stop this tactic.
Be suspect of any email that contains an attachment
(a paperclip). If you do not recognize the sender, or are not expecting
the email (even if you DO recognize the sender) it would be wise to
inspect the email prior to opening.
HOW TO KNOW WHAT YOU'RE GETTING WITHOUT OPENING YOUR
EMAIL: We no longer automatically open our web email, as some viruses
will kick off automatically when the email is opened. Thus your computer
can become infected.
To turn off automatic opening in Outlook Express, click
on "View" then "Layout", then uncheck "Show
Preview Pane"
TO CHECK FOR VIRUSES IN AN ATTACHMENT:
In Outlook Express, right click on any unopened message in your Inbox,
choose "Properties", then the "Details" tab, then at
the bottom of the blue box, "Message Source".
You can page down through the source information on the
email. The actual email message will appear here and usually you can see
right away that the email is legitimate. There is also information on the
kind of file found in the attachment. Look for the following kind of info
below the email message.
Content-Type: audio/x-wav;
name=height.scr
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
The file extension is the important thing
The .scr file is a virus. Other virus files include: .pif,
.bat, .exe, .com. These are usually followed by a long string of
nonsensical characters
DO NOT open emails containing files with these extensions and DELETE
them from your computer.
Look for similar features on email readers other than
Outlook Express. Normally, Hotmail and AOL do scan their email for viruses
and prevent you from receiving them
POP-UPS: Be aware that pop-ups can
sometimes be inadvertently installed in your Start-up menus and will run
in the background if your computer. These are not necessarily damaging to
your computer, but they may cause it run much slower than you expect.
There is software available to block Pop-ups from appearing on your
computer.
PLEASE NOTE: While we alert you to this important
anti-virus information, we are not equipped to provide additional
technical support or advise you further about virus protection. A good
Internet search will yield a great deal of information regarding this
issue, and we urge you to give that a try.
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