Avoiding Viruse and Spam in Email

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1) Use Eudora, not Microsoft Outlook.

Eudora, being less popular, is less a target.

  • NU has a site license for Eudora.
  • Eudora v.6 has a pretty effective spam filter (~80%)

2) Turn off the web-related graphics features in Eudora, by deselecting options as shown in the next two figures.

You probably don’t want those graphics, and spammers/pornographers can tell that you viewed the message by the fact that the graphics are downloaded from their website when you opened the message.

Bet you didn't know that!

Be careful not to launch programs attached to messages. The warning options selected at right can help, but you still need to exercise caution before clicking on an attachment.

Make sure you know the sender, and that the message is specific enough that you know it was not fabricated by a virus on the sender’s computer.

For instance “open this file, I think you will like it” is NOT specific enough.

There is seldom a good reason to open a file attachment that is an executable file.

Get to know your filetypes.

Filetypes that people send you should be sensible ones that you recognize, like those at right:

  • .jpg or .jpeg - image file
  • .gif - image file
  • .doc - Word doc
  • .txt - plain text file
  • .ppt - powerpoint file
  • .htm or .html - web page
  • .xls - Excel speadsheet file
  • .pdf - Adobe Acrobat doc
  • .tif - image file
  • .rtf - text file with some formatting
  • .vcf - business card

Maintain your awareness of filetypes, and not just in email.

Windows tries to infantilize you by hiding filenames.

Prevent this by selecting "folder options" in any window showing files...

 

...and unselecting "hide extensions"