A big part of keeping your computer and the network safe is being careful when opening email and attachments that you receive!
Preventing viruses, trojans and worms from infecting your computer:
- DO NOT OPEN an e-mail attachment unless you know who sent it. EVEN THEN, it's not safe to assume that the sender was really the person that YOU know.
- Some viruses/worms/trojans use a "spoofing" method to create email addresses and include a virus in a attachment with a "friendly" name like "screensaver" or "your_file".
- Never click on an attachment with the file extention of .exe, .bak, .hta, .pif, .scr, .bat or .vb. (There are many other types of dangerous attachments but those listed are the most common.)
- Always scan an attachment with your anti-virus software BEFORE you open it and if possible verify that the person who appears to have sent it, really did send it!
- If you receive a reply to a message with a subject that you do not remember sending (something like "RE:your message"), it is most likely either a virus, hoax or spam. Don't open it, just delete it!
- When you delete a message, there may still a copy of the message stored on your computer in a deleted items folder (such as in Outlook and Outlook Express). Remember to delete the email from this folder to permanently remove it.
- Regularly back up your files to a "safe" place, burn them to a CD or save them to a floppy disk or USB drive! Should your system become infected, you won't lose all of your valuable data.
Preventing spam/hoaxes and phishing:
- Don't forward messages that promise that you will get a reward (money, gift certificates, a special movie will appear, free software from Bill Gates, etc.) if you send it to "10" of your friends...it's not going to happen!
- If you feel that you need to forward an email, be kind and remove the email addresses of previous recipients that appear at the top BEFORE you forward it!
- Disregard hoax emails that contain bogus warnings usually intent only on frightening or misleading users.
- Beware of "phishing"! Phishing is when you receive a very professional looking email stating that your account information may have been compromised or that your account needs updating. Some recent examples of phishing were in the name of "PayPal, EBay and Citibank". The email usually asks you to "click here" to log in and verify your information. DON'T DO IT! Clicking on the link will redirect you to a professional looking site that was set up just for the purpose of stealing your credit card, account number and/or personal information.
- NEVER click on a link in an email asking you to verify account information - if it is actually a place that you do business with, type the name that you know for the site directly into the address box of your browser.
- If it sounds too good to be true, it is shocking, sensational or asks you to click on a link to see something...DON'T DO IT!
- If you think that a email message looks real, check it out BEFORE you forward it to all your friends. See the links below for information on some of the most popular hoaxes: