>Try this. You will save yourselves the headache of apologizing
>to your friends for sending them emails with viruses should you
>get infected with a virus on your computer.
>...
>To avoid spreading computer viruses, create a contact in your
>email address book with the name : 0000 and with no email
>address in the details.
Although I'm still not a birder, computer viruses are something
I do have some experience with.
Jill's method of tricking your address book may be partly right,
part of the time, but this is not the way the viruses work (most usually).
The most dangerous viruses I have come across, (Kak, Sircam, and Nimda etc)
select only one or two email addresses from the address book. They then send
an infected email NOT through the mail program, so you would be still left
in the dark even if you are infected.
The best defence with viruses is knowledge;
only by knowing how the viruses work and how they spread
can we protect ourselves from this threat.
Here are a few tips:
Outlook Express is a favourite with many people but it is bearing
the brunt of virus attacks due to many security problems.
If you do keep using Outlook, then it is important to know how to turn off
the preview panel. This can be done either through the menus or by
using the keyboard shortcut: Alt V L P A. (this may vary between versions
of Outlook)
The reason for this is that many virus can be caught by simply previewing
an infected email. That is, you don't even have to open an attachment to
catch the virus.
Do not send attachments to any email forums unless you can be very specific
about the contents of the attachment. Most email forums discourage
attachments altogether.
Use plain text email rather than "rich text" or "html" formatted emails as
malicious code can be hidden within them, or can invoke a webpage which
does. (note: if you are unsure if your emails are formatted
as rich text or plain text, if you can change fonts, size, colour etc,
you are using rich text email. This can usually be turned off from your
email program's "preferences")
Always fill in the "subject" field on a new email. If you receive an email
which doesn't have a subject, convention says delete it.
Although we all hate them, use a good virus protection program,
and MOST importantly, keep it updated! This is vital.
The viruses which seem to be most prevalent now are the ones which
update themselves via the net.
I have been dealing with computer viruses for several years and
for most of that time I have been somewhat blase.
Only very recently viruses have become much more intelligent
and pernicious. We all must take steps to combat this threat.
Lastly, my apologies for the off-topic email.
Hoping this info will help.
Cheers,
Peter
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