Re: VERY IMPORTANT-the way viruses work

[Guest guest]

All,

HOW VIRUSES WORK: Viruses like this are not being sent by the person that

shows up in the From: slot -- in this case, Smokie. The way viruses work is

that they invade a person's computer with a primary job to look up and make

a target list of all the email addresses stored on it (EVERY email address

looking in your email program and looking on any other webpages or documents

you might have stored on your hard drive). Once they have a target list, the

virus begins sending copies of itself to all those addresses. In so doing,

they automatically pull one of the addresses they found and use that as the

From: person (say they found Smokie's email address this time and his

address may have been part of a list found on any one of thousands of

computers that received email from him or display his address).

This harvested list includes addresses like our group address and even our

own addresses that show up when we post and someone receives that post as

an individual email. You do not necessarily have to correspond by email

with someone to be vulnerable to a virus that attacks their computer. Every

time you post your email address anywhere on the web (and our group messages

are both on the web as well as being sent with our posts to each member's

computer if they are set to receive individual emails), it is available for

harvesting like this.

VIRUS PROTECTION IDEAS: Obviously subscribe to a virus protection service

like McAfee or Norton or TrendMicro and keep it updated - that's where most

people leave themselves vulnerable as new viruses are being made every day.

Also it's important to understand that you should have multiple email

addresses to cut your risks. Many have a prime address for important email

communications and then a different one they use for online discussion

groups to help minimize the virus risks. You can get a free email address

from , Google, and a few other places. MSN also offers free email but

they are pretty annoying.

IDEAS: I think Sharon is correct also in that if you go to the

My Groups page and set your email preference for DAILY DIGEST for this group

(and any others you belong to), you will by default not receive any

attachments and therefore no risk of virus coming THROUGH the groups. This

is because I think the DIGEST format strips off any attachments before it

compiles the digest which it mails to each person subscribed.

Also if you belong to several groups, you may want to visit the home

page of each group and check the Settings (a tab selection on the left side

of the page about one page down) which will show you whether that group

allows email attachments or not. To do this, go to the My Groups page and

you can see all of your groups there and easily click to go to each home

page.

If a group does not allow email attachments, there is no virus risk FROM THE

GROUP EMAIL MESSAGES. However you could still be vulnerable if one of the

group members gets infected someplace else, has your email on the harvest

list (ie you have posted to that group) and their virus sends itself to you.

That won't happen via a group email (neither individual post nor digest)

though, it would appear as a separate offline email not related to the group

although it may appear as if it is coming from a group member since there is

no telling which name it will chose to set as the FROM name.

Bottom line on : You may want to consider whether remaining as

a member of groups that allow attachments is worth the risk. Viruses nearly

always come as attachments and that can be a cartoon, photograph or many

other types of files that don't necessarily " look " like a virus. You can set

your delivery options to Digest and avoid attachments from these groups that

allow attachments. But if you want Individual Emails as your delivery option

instead, you are definitely putting yourself at higher risk for a virus

attachment to be delivered to your computer. Of course, you will still have

to open the attachment in order to activate it.

HTH

Leena

On 6/13/06, Gehle <robgehle@...> wrote:

>

>

> why do we have two of those messages in our boxes from smokie? is he

> sending it or talking about it? im not opening it to find out.

>

>From: " darkstarzz1019 " <darkstarzz1019@...<darkstarzz1019%40>

> >

> >>Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2006 03:21:41 -0000

> >

> >To all members DO NOT OPEN the message titles " New Grapic Site " " this

> >is a VIRUS that has been going out to all the groups. If you have

> >opened it run virus scan right away.

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

that was pretty interesting,thank you. my father in law works with

computers, and he updates ours all the time; i call it the frankenstein

machine. those virus scans are great, and they always ask me every once in

awhile to update and it never costs anything, it just runs for a couple of

minutes and its done. sorry smokie, if i offended by using your name, i did

not think YOU were sending out viruses left and right. everyone take

care; and use protection!

but doesnt hotmail already give you a virus scan when you get an account

with them? i think i have norton anti-virus for my computer, but hotmail

scans my attachments with something else, i think.

rob

<html><div>No greater burden can be borne by an individual than to know no

one cares or understands. </div></html>

>From: " Leena Grace " <leenagrace@...>

>Reply-neck pain

>neck pain

>Subject: Re: VERY IMPORTANT-the way viruses work

>Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 11:58:43 -0700

>

>All,

>

>HOW VIRUSES WORK: Viruses like this are not being sent by the person that

>shows up in the From: slot -- in this case, Smokie. The way viruses work is

>that they invade a person's computer with a primary job to look up and make

>a target list of all the email addresses stored on it (EVERY email address

>looking in your email program and looking on any other webpages or

>documents

>you might have stored on your hard drive). Once they have a target list,

>the

>virus begins sending copies of itself to all those addresses. In so doing,

>they automatically pull one of the addresses they found and use that as the

>From: person (say they found Smokie's email address this time and his

>address may have been part of a list found on any one of thousands of

>computers that received email from him or display his address).

>

>This harvested list includes addresses like our group address and even our

>own addresses that show up when we post and someone receives that post as

>an individual email. You do not necessarily have to correspond by email

>with someone to be vulnerable to a virus that attacks their computer.

>Every

>time you post your email address anywhere on the web (and our group

>messages

>are both on the web as well as being sent with our posts to each member's

>computer if they are set to receive individual emails), it is available for

>harvesting like this.

>

>VIRUS PROTECTION IDEAS: Obviously subscribe to a virus protection service

>like McAfee or Norton or TrendMicro and keep it updated - that's where most

>people leave themselves vulnerable as new viruses are being made every day.

>

> Also it's important to understand that you should have multiple email

>addresses to cut your risks. Many have a prime address for important email

>communications and then a different one they use for online discussion

>groups to help minimize the virus risks. You can get a free email address

>from , Google, and a few other places. MSN also offers free email but

>they are pretty annoying.

>

> IDEAS: I think Sharon is correct also in that if you go to the

>My Groups page and set your email preference for DAILY DIGEST for this

>group

>(and any others you belong to), you will by default not receive any

>attachments and therefore no risk of virus coming THROUGH the groups. This

>is because I think the DIGEST format strips off any attachments before it

>compiles the digest which it mails to each person subscribed.

>

>Also if you belong to several groups, you may want to visit the home

>page of each group and check the Settings (a tab selection on the left side

>of the page about one page down) which will show you whether that group

>allows email attachments or not. To do this, go to the My Groups page and

>you can see all of your groups there and easily click to go to each home

>page.

>

>If a group does not allow email attachments, there is no virus risk FROM

>THE

>GROUP EMAIL MESSAGES. However you could still be vulnerable if one of the

>group members gets infected someplace else, has your email on the harvest

>list (ie you have posted to that group) and their virus sends itself to

>you.

>That won't happen via a group email (neither individual post nor digest)

>though, it would appear as a separate offline email not related to the

>group

>although it may appear as if it is coming from a group member since there

>is

>no telling which name it will chose to set as the FROM name.

>

>Bottom line on : You may want to consider whether remaining as

>a member of groups that allow attachments is worth the risk. Viruses nearly

>always come as attachments and that can be a cartoon, photograph or many

>other types of files that don't necessarily " look " like a virus. You can

>set

>your delivery options to Digest and avoid attachments from these groups

>that

>allow attachments. But if you want Individual Emails as your delivery

>option

>instead, you are definitely putting yourself at higher risk for a virus

>attachment to be delivered to your computer. Of course, you will still have

>to open the attachment in order to activate it.

>

>HTH

>Leena

>

>

>On 6/13/06, Gehle <robgehle@...> wrote:

> >

> >

> > why do we have two of those messages in our boxes from smokie? is he

> > sending it or talking about it? im not opening it to find out.

> >

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

> >From: " darkstarzz1019 "

><darkstarzz1019@...<darkstarzz1019%40>

> > >

> > >>Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2006 03:21:41 -0000

> > >

> > >To all members DO NOT OPEN the message titles " New Grapic Site " " this

> > >is a VIRUS that has been going out to all the groups. If you have

> > >opened it run virus scan right away.

> >

> >

> >

>

>

>