2008 Woodie Awards
Be weary of e-mail viruses
Benjamin Billman
Issue date: 10/22/07 Section: Opinions
- Page 1 of 1
It strikes me that many people possibly don't know the basic things for Internet safety.
This hit home to me not too long ago when I received a "VERY IMPORTANT E-MAIL" from my friend.
This was one of those chain e-mails people send me, not realizing I just laugh at them and add them to my delete box.
This one though, being "VERY IMPORTANT," merited my attention. So I opened it up. It was pretty standard stuff, actually.
I wonder if I'm the only person who gets virus warnings every other day from friends who think it could concern me.
But I digress. "VERY IMPORTANT" (I swear, these things are form letters). So and so has released a "SUPER MEGA DEATH virus" that, when you open your e-mail, your "COMPUTER WILL EXPLODE and YOUR EYES WILL POP OUT OF THEIR SOCKETS!" As well, the FBI, CIA and assorted other organizations are covering this up.
Now that I have been blessed with this knowledge, I am supposed to send it out to "EVERYONE ON YOUR BUDDY LIST or THE WORLD WILL END." So when the world ends in the next couple millennia, yeah...my bad. Sorry.
With relation to just this simple problem (that of people believing you can unleash a virus that will destroy your computer just by opening up an e-mail), I have these helpful tips, published by Concordia University, Wisconsin and the first in line in a Google search for "Anti-virus tips."
Don't open an attached file if you do not know what it is, who sent it to you or if you were not expecting it (even if it is from somebody you know). This is especially true if the file has any of the following extensions: .pif, .vbs, .scr, .exe.
Don't use the preview pane in Outlook. Some viruses can infect a computer just from the preview pane.
When in doubt, contact the sender. Write back to them and ask what the attachment is. If the attachment is valid, they will tell you what it is and what it does.
To permanently delete a suspect message, hold down the SHIFT key and hit DELETE.
The same holds true for Instant Messenger viruses. If someone sends you a link, don't be a trusting fool. Ask them what it is!
Hopefully, by following these basic rules, at least MY inbox will be much less full when I wake up each morning.
Now all I have to do is figure out a way to stop those darn advertisements for magazine subscriptions. By the way, do you want 24 issues of Time for only $9.95 a year?
I can hook you up!
This hit home to me not too long ago when I received a "VERY IMPORTANT E-MAIL" from my friend.
This was one of those chain e-mails people send me, not realizing I just laugh at them and add them to my delete box.
This one though, being "VERY IMPORTANT," merited my attention. So I opened it up. It was pretty standard stuff, actually.
I wonder if I'm the only person who gets virus warnings every other day from friends who think it could concern me.
But I digress. "VERY IMPORTANT" (I swear, these things are form letters). So and so has released a "SUPER MEGA DEATH virus" that, when you open your e-mail, your "COMPUTER WILL EXPLODE and YOUR EYES WILL POP OUT OF THEIR SOCKETS!" As well, the FBI, CIA and assorted other organizations are covering this up.
Now that I have been blessed with this knowledge, I am supposed to send it out to "EVERYONE ON YOUR BUDDY LIST or THE WORLD WILL END." So when the world ends in the next couple millennia, yeah...my bad. Sorry.
With relation to just this simple problem (that of people believing you can unleash a virus that will destroy your computer just by opening up an e-mail), I have these helpful tips, published by Concordia University, Wisconsin and the first in line in a Google search for "Anti-virus tips."
Don't open an attached file if you do not know what it is, who sent it to you or if you were not expecting it (even if it is from somebody you know). This is especially true if the file has any of the following extensions: .pif, .vbs, .scr, .exe.
Don't use the preview pane in Outlook. Some viruses can infect a computer just from the preview pane.
When in doubt, contact the sender. Write back to them and ask what the attachment is. If the attachment is valid, they will tell you what it is and what it does.
To permanently delete a suspect message, hold down the SHIFT key and hit DELETE.
The same holds true for Instant Messenger viruses. If someone sends you a link, don't be a trusting fool. Ask them what it is!
Hopefully, by following these basic rules, at least MY inbox will be much less full when I wake up each morning.
Now all I have to do is figure out a way to stop those darn advertisements for magazine subscriptions. By the way, do you want 24 issues of Time for only $9.95 a year?
I can hook you up!