virus

[steinjr]

... As I said - risky behavior around unsolicited attachments. But just opening the email won't do a thing to harm you.

Grin,
Stein

You are right, the email itself is not the problem, it's the attachment. And it's risky at best even if you have an A/V program since you can't be sure if it has a known signature. I don't even want to take the chance that my A/V could miss a known virus, one has to have a lot of faith that the net will catch you when you jump into it. I'd rather not jump than have to worry. From what I've been reading, clicking on a link could be harmful, something about a "drive by" where it tries to load something just by going to the site. Then again, you should be protected in the event something there tries to load a rogue program. It's when you say, "OK" that gets you into trouble, so it's best not to get into that situation in the first place.

Right. And the way to avoid getting in trouble is to understand (at least in rough terms) what you are doing.

Passing on warnings of "do not open emails with these titles" is mostly useless. Instead of depending on trying to remember a random list of "must not open emails with these titles", you remember that you don't click on links or open attachments in emails you receive, unless it comes from someone you know, and it either contains something you have asked them to send to you, or there is an adequate explanation for why it is being sent to you. "This is so cool" or "You got to look at this" are not adequate explanations for me.

Keeping your anti-virus software up to date comes in addition to that, and is an added safety net. Keeping your email program (and web browser and operating system etc) up to date by routinely subscribing to security fixes is a very good idea as well.

But it all comes back to understanding what you are doing. There is nothing magical about computer software, including viruses, worms and Trojans. Opening an email is normally harmless in itself. Opening an unsolicited attachment or clicking on links to unknown web pages may cause damage.

Smile,
Stein