Fw: Avoid Those Viruses By Practicing Safe E-Mailing

[Guest guest]

we should all learn something from this.

-----Original Message-----

From: Bill and Barb Wilkie <wilworks@...>

Bill and Barb Wilkie <wilworks@...>

Date: Tuesday, March 30, 1999 4:29 PM

Subject: Avoid Those Viruses By Practicing Safe E-Mailing

>Hi, thought this might be of interest to you. -- barb

>

>------- Forwarded -------

>

>Avoid Those Viruses By Practicing Safe E-Mailing

>DWIGHT SILVERMAN

>c. 1999 Houston Chronicle

>

>

>

>HOUSTON -- The frenzied spread of the W97 virus that began

>Friday and continued through Monday is the direct result of a widely

>accepted -- yet very unsafe and very unwise -- business computing habit:

>sending Microsoft Word documents as e-mail attachments.

>

>It's a practice that has become more prevalent as Microsoft's Office

>suite of productivity software becomes more ubiquitous. Everyone has

>Word, right? So it must be okay to send information as a Word document

>over the Internet, right?

>

>But computer users everywhere discovered, starting Friday afternoon,

>that it's NOT right. The fact that Word documents can transmit computer

>viruses is just one reason why those who use PCs should stop the

>practice immediately, and instead send e-mail as text-only messages.

>

>The virus - which technically is a form of destructive

>programming known as a worm - takes the form of a macro built into a

>Word 97 or Word 2000 document. A macro is a series of commands that

>causes the popular word processing software to perform specific actions.

>

>In this case, the macro commands activate the address book in

>either Microsoft's Outlook or Outlook Express e-mail programs. It grabs

>the first 50 names in the address book and mails a copy of a list of

>pornographic Web sites to those people.

>

>Even those computer users who practice safe computing were fooled on

>Friday when the virus first appeared. That's because appears to

>come from someone known to the recipient. The macro inserts the name of

>the sender - the person whose address book was invaded - into the

>subject field as part of the subject line that begins ``Important

>message from ... '' That makes the recipient more apt to trust the

>document and open it in Word.

>

>Macro viruses have been around for several years, ever since a computer

>science professor created a benign one to prove it could be done, and

>serve as a warning to PC users.

>

>In fact, macro viruses are now the most prevalent form of virus in the

>wild, according to Symantec, which makes the popular Norton AntiVirus

>software. And that's largely because of the practice of sending Word

>documents via e-mail.

>

>There are other reasons not to send Word documents as attachments.

>

>-- They can be quite large, particularly complex documents that contain

>illustrations. For those who are receive e-mail via modem connections,

>waiting for one of these to download can be excruciating.

>

>-- Not everyone uses Word. Although Word has a grip on about 85 percent

>of the word-processing market, Corel's WordPerfect and Lotus' WordPro

>also are popular. Those programs may not be able to look at Word

>documents, depending on the version.

>

>-- Not everyone uses Microsoft Windows, the platform on which Word 97

>and Word 2000 run. At the Houston Chronicle, for example, most of the

>editorial department runs on a Unix-based system.

>

>Unless you are sending a document to someone with whom you are

>collaborating, there are very few good reasons for sending a Word

>document simply to deliver information.

>

>Some people may want to preserve the fancy formatting they've put into a

>document, but unless it contains tables or illustrations, visual tricks

>usually don't add much to the content, which is what's really important.

>

>Those who insist upon a glitzy look can always use HTML, or HyperText

>Markup Language, which is the coding used to build Web pages. Most

>modern e- mail programs can read HTML-based messages.

>

>But plain, simple text really is the best format for e-mail. It doesn't

>take a long time to download, it can be read by all types of computer

>users, and it can't hurt your computer upon being opened.

>

>(Despite the chain-mail warnings that nearly every PC user has gotten

>about not opening certain e-mails - with subjects such as ``Good Times''

>or ``Join the Crew!'' - there is no way that a text-only e-mail can harm

>your computer - only those with attached documents or programs.)

>

>Some people will send whole programs to each other - executable files

>that end in .exe. Such programs as Happy99, a virus that changes crucial

>system files and then attaches a copy of itself to every e-mail you

>send, would not be a problem if people did the smart thing - delete any

>executable file, unless you know who it's from and were told it was

>coming in advance.

>

>If you receive a Word document, politely ask the sender to resubmit the

>message in text-only format, and point out that such attachments can

>transmit computer viruses.

>

>It will take a concerted effort to get computer users to stop sending

>Word documents, but the virus should provide some inspiration

>for doing so.

>

>If you receive a Word document you feel you must look at, try using

>QuickView instead. This is a small program built into Windows 95 and 98

>that lets you view many documents without using the software that

>generated them.

>

>Right-click on the document, then choose QuickView. The top part of the

>document may appear to be garbled in some cases; scroll down to see the

>text.

>Barbara Wilkie

>(My convention is prevention!)

>

>Want to learn more about the toxicity

>of fragrance products and pesticides?

>Please visit the Environmental Health Network

>

><http://users.lanminds.com/~wilworks/ehnindex.htm>