E-mail Viruses

Question:

Tell me more out Viruses by e-mail.

More information:

If you get mail from someone you don’t know and it has an attachment (or a link to a web page) you should NEVER open it. It’s not a good idea; it’s the easiest way to get a virus on your computer. You shouldn’t even open an attachment from a friend if you are not expecting it, unless the message makes sense. A message like "here are my Grand Canyon photos" with attachments is probably okay if you know they just got back from the GC is probably safe; a message like "I’d like your opinion on this" and you weren’t expecting anything should be verified with a phone call or message before opening.

Weird messages (with viruses) from friends.
There are some viruses that try to pretend they know you. The first computer catches the virus; the virus runs on the computer and does several things:

  • Searches the hard drive (e-mail, documents, web pages) of the infected computer and looks for e-mail addresses.
  • While searching the hard drive it looks for sentences or phrases to title the message and the attachments.
  • It starts sending e-mails (the ones it collected) to random address from other random addresses using random subjects with random attachments.
  • It may do other nasty virus stuff (delete files, open up remote access to hard drive, etc.) to your computer at the same time.
  • It hopes you’ll open it when you receive the message and the process will start again

    Thisn’t any different from real mail. I can address a letter to someone and make the return address be someone else. It just costs me thirty-seven cents to do it with real mail; it’s free with e-mail (your computer is doing the sending).


    This why you get messages from people you know that they didn’t send.
    This why people you know ask you about messages you know you never sent.


    Some viruses do not replicate in this way but it’s becoming more common. Many of the other viruses are just more destructive.


    Backing up your files often (a copy on a floppy or CD) is a great prevention method. Even if your computer is infected, you still have a copy of all your work somewhere else!

    Last modified by Gary LaPointe at August 4, 2006 11:43 AM. (ID #TT000327)
    This entry was posted in the following categories: E-mail , Virus
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