Email Viruses: Are you Part of The Problem or Part of the Solution ?

You wake up and think “it’s going to be a good day today”, then it happens. You start up your computer, open your email program and there it is - another new virus warning from someone you know. The virus that will destroy your hard drive. Yikes! A computer hacker from somewhere in the world is out to get you and all of your friends, family, and co-workers. No way. You’re not going to let that happen. There’s only one thing to do. Forward the email to all of them and give them a “heads up” about the threat! Three seconds later, you log off of your email account feeling good that you’ve done your part to save them from a vicious virus attack. The problem is, the virus you’ve just told them about isn’t real and the people you’ve warned about it are doing exactly what you did. By day’s end, the message you sent will is likely to be forwarded to all of your friend’s friends and their friend’s friends. That’s not a good thing and I’ll tell you why.

 

Everyday, I get email from “well meaning” friends warning me about the latest viruses. When I worked as a technical support specialist, I got a forwarded email from “well meaning” co-workers who thought I should read the email that they got about a new virus.  My reaction to these emails was always the same. I researched the net for information about the virus to find out if it was really a threat. 99.9% of the time, the virus was a hoax. All of my friends, family, and co-workers know by now, that if they get an email back from me about a virus, it will say “relax, the virus isn’t real” and I provide them links to sites where I found that information.

 

When you get an email from someone who is warning you about a new virus, you should always be skeptical about its validity. If the virus information is a hoax, do your friends a favor and pass along the “real story” about it. If you don’t know if it’s true or not, don’t forward it to anyone else, until you find out. Sending email adds to Internet traffic on the information highway, which slows down everyone’s ability to travel on the information highway. It can also shut down your company’s network, which can put you on the unemployment line. Hopefully, your company’s network has safeguards in place to keep you from getting fired for infecting their network. A word of advice - play it safe and don’t forward emails or open attachments that you receive unless you’re absolutely sure that they’re safe!

 

How do you find out if a virus is real or a hoax?

 

Whenever you receive an email about a virus, you should check a couple of different sources to find out if the threat is real. Sites from anti-virus software companies like Symantic, McAfee , and Sophos are reputable sources for virus information. Other sites to get information about whether a virus is a hoax can be found on Hoaxbusters,  Snopes, or Virus Busters from the University of Michigan.

 

Advice on email attachments - be careful, very careful.

 

Email attachments can pose a “real” threat to your computer and to the security of your personal information. Hackers will use various techniques to tempt you to open an attachment.

 

As an example, here’s an excerpt from Sophos:

 

“With just weeks remaining until the release of the last ever Harry Potter novel, and the imminent premiere of the fifth movie in the franchise, Sophos has warned of a new computer worm exploiting Potter-mania around the world. The W32/Hairy-A worm can automatically infect a PC when users plug-in USB drives, which carry a file posing as a copy of the eagerly anticipated novel, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”. If the users have allowed USB drives to ‘auto-run’ they will see a file called HarryPotter-TheDeathlyHallows.doc Inside this Word document file is the simple phrase “Harry Potter is dead.” The worm then looks for other removable drives to infect.” See the entire article about the Harry Potter attachment on the Sophos website.