Email Viruses
Information Technology takes great care to avoid the problems associated with viruses. End users can help by not opening email attachments unless they are expecting them and actually know what they are.
All of our NetWare servers are equipped with an effective antivirus program updated at least weekly with the latest virus definitions. Every workstation in the college is equipped with antivirus software set up to automatically update both the virus definitions and the antivirus program.
Even though we keep our antivirus programs up to date with the latest possible virus definitions, we still must depend on our users to exercise vigilance. Clever hackers are always creating new ways to fool antivirus programs and to dupe users into running malicious programs. Not everyone who brings a file into the College, whether by email or floppy disk, is taking all the precautions that we do.
Creating data. The first precaution you should take is make sure that any data you open or save has an extension that is associated with the program you are using to create the data: e.g. DOC for Word documents, WPD for Word Perfect documents and XLS for Excel spreadsheets. Using one of these extensions ensures that our antivirus program will examine the file properly and also ensures if you send the document to someone else, his/her antivirus program will likely examine the file.
You should insist that the people who send you attachments follow this same rule - it's a matter of professionalism, common courtesy and safety.
Email attachments. One source of computer viruses is email attachments. We've all heard about this problem but not every one is taking enough steps to stop them. The rule for dealing attachments is simple: do not open an attachment unless you are both expecting it and you know what it is.
Do not open the attachment unless you are expecting it. Because of the availability of simple scripts for hackers, it is easy to cause the Microsoft Outlook email program to re-send an attachment to anyone in the recipient's address book. If a hacker sends a malicious attachment to a computer with Outlook, that program can be made to automatically send the attachment out again to a lot of people and it might look like it to the recipients as if it came from a trusted source.
Even when you get an attachment from a friend or colleague you trust, it still may have malicious computer code and may have a file name that seems familiar. That is why it is important to only open attachments you are expecting. If you are expecting a particular file with a specific name you have some assurance that Outlook (or another email program) did not automatically pass on a malicious file.
Do not open an attachment unless you know what it is. Even if you are expecting a file, the average user often cannot tell what it is - whether it is a simple text document, a Word Perfect document or a script which will erase your whole hard drive. It is easy to hide this information.
Windows uses the file extension (the final three letters in a file name after the period) to determine how to open a file. Simple examples are the letters WPD or DOC. We all know that WPD means that the document is a Word Perfect file and that DOC means that it is a Microsoft Word file. By examining the extension, Windows knows what program to use to open the file. Usually opening a document in one of these standard programs is safe. Either our antivirus program will protect you or the type of file is non-destructive.
What if the extension is EXE or COM? Many users know that those are programs that might easily do damage. But do you know what an SHS extension means or a VBS extension? Those two extensions also signify program types that hackers have used to cause damage. There are many possible extensions for files that will cause Windows to run the file as a program and many of these extensions are obscure even to techies.
Every time you receive a file you should save it to disk before opening it. That will give you the chance to see what the file extension is and allow the anti-virus program to scan it. Unless the extension is a type you know like DOC or WPD or XLS or TXT you should not be opening it. You should never just click or double click on the file name - this might run a destructive program. If you can use the "View" button in Pegasus to open an attachment the attachment is probably safe.
Pegasus has a limitation in its display of file names - it will only show about the first 20 characters of the file name. If the name is more than about 20 characters long, the file name may have a extension which can be hidden, like Anna Kournakova.jpg.vbs. If Pegasus only displays the characters up to JPG, you would think that you are opening a graphics file because all you can see is that the file name appears to end in JPG, a non-destructive file type. In reality, Pegasus has failed to display the full file name and that the file is a VBS file, an extremely powerful and dangerous file type that you would never want to open because it can damage your data.