Frequently Asked Questions

Q. I use Microsoft Outlook for E-mail.  How do I make it more resistant to all these computer viruses running around wild on the internet?

A. Microsoft Outlook out of the box has several vulnerabilities to malicious E-mail, especially to Visual Basic Script (VBS) and HTML code.  Use the Microsoft Update facility built into Windows and Office products to upgrade your programs for the latest security fixes.  If you use Internet Explorer, use Tools, Windows Update to get to the Update pages.  Use the Auto Update navigation tab for the latest updates.

Outlook or Office Users: http://office.microsoft.com/.

Corporate users: Consult your network administrators or IT departments before applying any patch. 

IT administrators: If you are not keeping up with the latest security updates and making them available to your users you deserve all the bad karma you will be getting in this life and the next.

A. The correct plural of Virus is Viruses.

A. It helps to be a little paranoid.  You should never run a program from an unknown source,  however, computer viruses are being delivered more by e-mail now than by any other means, frequently from people you know, usually because they have become victims.

• Keep your e-mail program updated to the latest releases.  Many times e-mail worms exploit known weaknesses in common e-mail programs such as Outlook or Outlook Express.  These types of attacks can appear to come from people you know, so the commonly given advice to not open e-mail from unknown sources won't help you much.  Keeping your software updated will keep it resistant to newer viruses that scanning might miss.

• Keep your anti-virus software up to date.  Update weekly or more often and automate this process so you don't forget.  Make sure it automatically scans your incoming mail as it arrives.

• Be very suspicious of e-mail attachments you were not expecting.  Check the file with your anti-virus software.  Especially don't open it if it has a .VBS extension or if it is an executable program.  Be aware of what you are looking at and be sure of it's nature before you open it.

• Run a personal firewall product, such as Black ICE Defender or ZoneAlarm to prevent online attacks from compromising your computer.  Do this especially if you have a cable modem or DSL connection.

• Evaluate your data.  Make frequent backups of critical data.  The frequency of backup depends on the nature of the data, the higher its value or the more often it changes the more often you need to back it up.

A. Yes.  Using an anti-virus program by itself is no guarantee of protection from a Trojan Horse or a worm.  Anti virus programs use "profiles" or "definitions" to fingerprint known virus files.  A new virus could infect your machine before the new profile could reach you.  Anti-virus programs use "Heuristics" to detect potentially harmful actions by a malicious program but this only helps to mitigate the risk of a non-profiled virus getting into your system.  This is why it's important to maintain healthy skepticism about e-mail attachments.  

• It sensationalizes the virulence and destructiveness of the virus.
• There is no known cure and it doesn't have a name.
• Anti-virus software is said to be "powerless" against it.
• Big companies like Microsoft or Intel are said to be victims or are quoted as saying "it's the most destructive" or "worst yet".
• You can't find a virus with the described characteristics in the "Top 10" lists of the anti-virus software vendors.
• There is no known credible source for the e-mail.
• The mail tells you to "forward this warning to everyone you know".
• The e-mail claims it has detected the virus on your computer.  

An arriving e-mail can't detect any virus; therefore any e-mail message that warns you that it has detected a virus on your system should be ignored and deleted.  Do not open any attachment associated with an e-mail you suspect to be a hoax.  Especially, do not forward the warning to anyone since this only helps to propagate the hoax.  If you must forward a warning about the hoax, forward a link to a web page describing the hoax, not the hoax e-mail itself.  Above all, NEVER delete a file because an e-mail message arrives telling you to do it.

You can find a comprehensive list of known hoaxes here:  http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html or a more general list of Urban Legends at http://www.urbanlegends.com/.

Or see my list of A-V references here.