Protect Yourself Against Email Viruses

We sure have seen a lot of alerts in the last year about viruses that propagate through email. Melissa, Pappa, KillerRésumé and the "Love Bug" are just a few of the 30+ email viruses that have made headlines. Many millions of dollars in damage were claimed by corporations that should have suffered a grand total of zero trouble. All they had to do to avoid virus damage is tell their employees not to run attachment programs!

If you wish to stay virus-free, an anti-virus program is an obvious addition to your system. If you already have one, you should make sure to update it regularly with all the latest information.

The anti-virus companies promptly add new viruses to their programs. Promptly, that is, after the virus has already begun to spread. In the days when viruses propagated through floppy diskettes, that was fine. With viruses like the Love Bug, that's just not good enough.

Luckily, there are some easy steps you can take to catch these insidious email viruses before anyone knows about them. It just takes being alert and aware.

You'll notice a theme in these items. Most of them make specific reference to Microsoft software products. That's because the majority of these viruses target only Microsoft products. People not using Microsoft Outlook (or Outlook Express) for email and Microsoft Word for word processing could have sailed right through this last year without picking up any of the "headliner" email viruses. And folks not using Microsoft Windows wouldn't even have noticed them but for the hundreds of virus warnings being dispersed all over the Internet.

Does that mean you should throw away all your Microsoft products and switch to software like the Linux operating system, the Eudora email program or WordPerfect? Not necessarily, though it's worth considering. But the prevalence of Microsoft's programs makes them the top target for virus writers, so you need to stay on your toes if you decide to use them.

1. Don't open unfamiliar attachments. The message from the latest set of viruses is clear. Even if the message comes from someone you know, and has an innocuous subject line, it can still be a virus attachment. Only open attachments you specifically expect, and confirm them with the sender first.
2. Look at the attachment extension. Windows looks at the letters after the last period in a filename to see what kind of file it is. Are you expecting a text file (.txt)? If its name is "BillsFile.txt.exe", it isn't a text file -- it's an executable program, and running it could be trouble. Some of the extensions to watch for are:
   .exe, .com -- Standard Windows/DOS executable programs
   .js, .vbs -- JavaScript or Visual Basic Script programs.
3. Enable Microsoft Word's Virus warnings. In Microsoft Word, go to the Tools menu and select Macros, then Security. Depending on the exact version of Word you're using, you'll see a dialog something like the one in the illustration. If you're a typical person that doesn't use macros in your daily work (and wouldn't know how, anyway), select the highlighted "High Security" option. If you write your own macros, or work with people that do, select the "Medium" option and you'll be queried every time a document tries to load with macros in it.
4. Don't be afraid to ask. If you get an attachment you don't understand or that you're unsure of, shoot an email back to the sender and ask what it is. If it's a document you were supposed to receive, they'll tell you. If not, delete it immediately.
5. Be wary of cute little programs. Elf Bowling sure is clever. It's a promotional game, and no, it isn't a Trojan Horse (that warning message was a hoax). There are, however, nasty programs disguised as cute little screensavers or freeware games. You're best off not loading any such programs.
6. Don't ever give out your password. Anybody official who needs your password already has it. Never give it out in email, chat rooms, instant messages, or over the phone. And make sure to choose a good password.

The best protection against viruses is just paying attention to what you're doing, and staying informed. And a good anti-viru s program can't hurt!