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VIRUS ADVICE PAGE |
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Email Warnings Top Virus protection sites Sites that tell you about Hoaxes |
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Due to the vast amount of viruses and virus warning hoaxes out there right now I have put together this page of advice. I am hoping that the following will help all of you become a little more aware of viruses, Hoaxes and the solutions! My first piece of advice if you receive a virus warning - DO NOT PANIC and send to every person you have ever sent or received mail from - READ ON FIRST! Or use the links above to go to the area you need information on! IF in Doubt contact your Technical Support Team!
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IMPORTANT!Do not open any attachments on emails unless you are expecting something even from your best friend! Treat any attachment with an .exe extension as suspicious! Check new virus notifications on the known anti virus websites before opening ANYTHING! these will tell you subject headings to be wary of and other information! Information on new viruses If you have a preview pane facility on your email programme - turn it off!
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Email hoaxes! If you receive an email telling you of a virus and asking you to pass the information to all your address book please follow the steps below - NEVER DELETE FILES! Many of these mails are Hoaxes asking you to check your computer and if you find certain files to delete them - chances are this is a hoax and by deleting the files you are taking a vital file from your computer - essentially doing the job of a real virus yourself!
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Common Email Hoaxes -Jdbgmgr.exe file hoax This comes in the form of an email asking you to check your computer for the above file with a Teddy bear icon - it goes on to tell you this is a virus and must be deleted from your computer! It is in fact a Microsoft file that helps your computer to run Java Script (used for some web sites). For full details follow the link below- http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/jdbgmgr.exe.file.hoax.html SULFNBK.EXE Warning This particular email message is a hoax. The file that is mentioned in the hoax, however, Sulfnbk.exe, is a Microsoft Windows 95/98/Me utility that is used to restore long file names, and like any .exe file, it can be infected by a virus that targets .exe files The link below will take you to full details on the hoax and also instructions for replacing the file if it has been deleted from your computer - http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/sulfnbk.exe.warning.html My advice - if you receive an email regarding a virus always check it out and never delete anything until you are sure you have a virus on your computer - if you are not sure contact your technical support team! There are many sites that will give good advice on Viruses and Hoaxes so always check first! |
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What you can do to help stop the spread of these hoaxes!
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If the Virus warning is genuine -You can check the new virus definitions and warnings on the following page - http://securityresponse.symantec.com There are many things you can do to stop the infection of your computer and AS IMPORTANT - stop it spreading to your address book contacts!
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Make sure your computer is cleanThe most important advice is -GET VIRUS PROTECTION SOFTWARE NOW!AND KEEP IT UP TO DATE!The one I use personally is Norton Antivirus family edition - with a firewall and parental controls! or go to www.google.co.uk and type in 'virus protection software' - this will give you lots of options! There are some very good virus checkers and firewalls (these stop people getting into your computer from the web and accessing your address book and other files!) BUY a good one and load it on your computer but be sure to run updates at least twice a week! Once a day is not too much and it could make all the difference for a few moments of your time! for around £30 a year you could save yourself from losing your data and also having to spend much more money replacing your hard drive!
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If you have had a virus and wish to warn your contacts never copy a mail sent to you but write your own mail message and then send to your contacts using blind carbon copy! As previously stated - delete people you do not have regular contact with from your address book and contacts list to limit the amount of people the virus can spread too! Add the following address to your address book/contact list This is not a real address but will come at the top of your address book/contact list so if you have a virus it will be the first address it tries to send itself from and you will get a message saying that the mail could not be delivered - so informing you that you have a virus on your computer or someone is using your address book!
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USING BLIND CARBON COPY! Back to topWhen sending messages to a group of people, unless it is REQUIRED that each one see the names of all others who received the message, PLEASE USE A BLIND RECIPIENT list. I am not aware of an e-mail program that does not allow you to send messages to a list of "blind" recipients, in which each person who receives the messages sees only their own address, and not the entire list of recipients. If you have AOL, it is the easiest thing to do: Simply bracket all recipients in a pair of parentheses (address, address). If you use Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express, there is a special field for "Bcc" (Blind copies) just below the "To" and "Cc" rows. If you do not see it when you open the program, click on View and select "Bcc Field." Eudora and Netscape Navigator also have blind recipient capabilities. If you use Yahoo! or Hotmail there is a "Bcc" field for entering addresses. By doing this each recipient will see only their own address, and not anyone else's, just as with this message. So far, because Mac's represent such a small percentage of the computers in use, the people who create the worms and viruses do not make them work with Mac computers. However, anyone using a Mac who does not hide the recipients of their e-mails makes their recipients vulnerable to the possibility of being hit with a virus from someone else on their CC list! Anyone who wants to protect their privacy and safety will appreciate your doing this. Few things about e-mail bother me more than when something I sent gets forwarded to a large list of people I don't know, and because my address is now in their message base, I am then vulnerable to receiving a virus from them ... or anyone to whom they forward that message. If you are one who already knows this, you may find it a handy message to send off to others who need a heads-up. Please try to do use blind recipient lists. It will make us all safer from viruses and worms. Back to top CONTACT TBEANZ Return to the HOME page |