Viruses

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General info

Checking an e-mail through "properties"

Helpful Virus Web sites

Hoaxes, Netlore, and "Urban Legends"

Helpful Hoax & Urban Legend Web sites

A special note about the "Klez" virus

General info

This information is intended for those using Outlook Express. I would gather that they are also good for other e-mail programs, but I'm not sure. I think you will benefit from reading this page no matter what program you're using.

These days, you cannot risk going without a virus program, AND updating it weekly. Viruses can do various amounts of damage to your computer, including actually destroying your hard drive to the point it must be replaced. Many of the new ones are able to snatch up your e-mail address book, and send out copies of the virus to everyone in your book without even leaving traces in your "sent" file! Some viruses can even sent themselves out to e-mails addresses found on Web pages you have visited that are in your "history" that aren't even in your address book.

Viruses can come from your friends, and viruses can FAKE coming from your friends. NEVER have your e-mail program set to automatically open up attachments, or you are a PRIME target to get a virus.

Your best defense, after you have a virus program installed and are updating it weekly, is to NEVER open an e-mail with an attachment unless you KNOW beforehand that it is coming and what it is. Photos, for instance come looking just like a virus attachment on Outlook. So far, no one has figured out how to imbed a virus inside a photo (jpg, bmp, or gif), so you have no way of knowing that the paperclip on an e-mail is a photo or a virus.

So far, you have to execute (click on to run the program) the program attached to get the virus. In other words, if you accidentally open the e-mail, theoretically you won't get the virus until you click on the attached file. THERE ARE TWO EXCEPTIONS TO THIS that I know of :

1) If you have your options set to automatically open attachments, you are vulnerable.

2) If you have an older version of Outlook and have not installed the "security" patch from www.microsoft.com A year or so ago, they discovered a "hole" in Outlook in which a virus could be transmitted through the "signature" attachment at the bottom of some folks' e-mails. Signature files automatically open, and somehow one virus figured out how to do that. You can find the security patch at Microsoft. Both McAfee and Symantec would give you information on it.

It is possible to decide if an e-mail is a virus by looking at the properties of an e-mail. Here are the steps to do this:

Checking properties:

For Outlook Express:

2) Highlight the message by clicking once on it to make it turn blue (DO NOT OPEN IT!!!)

3) Right click with your mouse on that blue bar with the message in it. A menu box will pop-up

4) Click on PROPERTIES

5) Click on DETAILS

6) Click on MESSAGE SOURCE

Then you can read the message in a safe text format without opening any attachments. From there, you'll usually know if the attachment is something you really want. You need to be VERY careful because some viruses have endings that look like e-mails or html pages. You CAN get viruses from Web sites if they are infected. My Web sites, are on a Linux server, NOT a Microsoft one, so the odds of a virus from my sites are slim to NONE. (Note to Kysa and Marcelyn--it's sort of like having a MAC computer--you're probably safe.)

Some of the dangerous endings on virus can include (but are not limited to...) .exe, .bat, .pif, .scr, .tif. Check a Virus Web site to see more endings, but these are the ones I most commonly receive.

I hope that helps! I do this about 20 times per day to read my e-mail when it looks questionable, and it's a pain in the you-know-what because it takes a lot of extra steps, but I've had 2 viruses wipe out my computer over 3 years, and I'm NOT gonna go there again!

For Outlook:

The instructions for checking the properties don't work in Outlook (as opposed to Outlook Express). There is no way to check properties of an attachment in Outlook that I know of. Outlook users need to make sure that they have the "preview pane" turned off. There are viruses that you can get from previewing a message (I got one once). To turn off the preview pane in Outlook, go to View and make sure that "preview pane" is not checked. If you have preview pane turned on, your message window will be split in two halves. One will list messages and the other will show the contents of the current message. If preview pane is turned off, you will only see the list of messages and will have to double click on a message to see its contents. (Thank you Heather, for this added bit!)

Helpful Virus Web sites

McAfee Virus Information Click on Virus Center and then check Virus Hoaxes.

*Symantec Virus Page This takes you straight to the latest viruses. This list is my favorite.

Hoaxes, Netlore, and "Urban Legends"

I get TONS of these weekly. I really gets on my nerves when they repeatedly come from the same people over and over, and every time I've given them the list of links to hoaxes! It only takes a minute to check out that tear-jerker, or well-meaning warning to find out if it's real. It's sooo sad that there are sick people out there who send out false e-mails. There are tear-jerker ones that have been circulating about missing children for YEARS for children that don't even exist, or for children who were found within hours.

Helpful Hoax & Urban Legend Web sites

About.com's Netlore A-Z Page Loaded with obnoxious pop-ups, but a good site to check anyway.

F-Secure Hoax Warnings

*McAfee Hoax Page A great list.

*Symantec Virus Hoaxes A great list.

*Urban Legends Reference Pages ("Snopes2")by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson, maintained by The San Fernando Valley Folklore Society. Slow to load, but my favorite e-mail hoax site.

Urban Legend Combat Kit The site says, "A free collection of canned responses [form letters] to help you combat Internet myths and urban legends. When someone sends you an urban legend, just cut and paste the appropriate response."

A special note about the "Klez" virus

This virus is one of the most prolific I've ever seen. It is able to change the sender and the subject lines all by itself. I've even gotten an e-mail that said it was from "postmaster" and when I checked properties, it said it was from "postmaster@homeschoolchristian.com." That e-mail address is NON-EXISTENT! If you study the properties, you can usually find the true sender inside.

Not to sound harsh, but I fear being inundated with virus questions from this page, so it would be greatly appreciated if you make every effort to fix your own problems and answer your own questions using the above Web sites.

Last update 5/17/02