We’ve all heard stories about
people receiving an item in the mail that in some way caused them harm. We’ve
heard of letter bombs and exploding packages, and in 2001, we learned about
Anthrax-laden letters. Although their frequency is low, they do make news.
These unsolicited items are sent to unsuspecting recipients. They may contain a
return address, a provocative envelope, or something else that encourages its
receiver to open it.
You probably receive lots of mail each day, much of it unsolicited and containing
unfamiliar but plausible return addresses. Some of this mail tells you of a
contest that you may have won or the details of a product that you might like.
The sender is trying to encourage you to open the letter, read its contents,
and interact with them in some way that is financially beneficial – to them.
Even today, many of us open letters to learn what we’ve won or what fantastic
deal awaits us. Since there are few consequences, there’s no harm in opening
them.
Email-borne viruses and worms operate much the same way, except there are
consequences, sometimes significant ones. Malicious email often contains a
return address of someone we know and often has a provocative Subject line.
Email viruses and worms are fairly common. If you’ve not received one, chances
are you will. Here are steps you can use to help you decide what to do with
every email message with an attachment that you receive. You should only read a
message that passes all of these tests.
1.The Know
test: Is the email from someone that you know?
2.The Received test: Have you received email from this sender before?
3.The Expect test: Were you expecting email with an attachment from this
sender?
4.The Sense test: Does email from the sender with the contents as described in
the Subject line and the name of the attachment(s) make sense? For example,
would you expect the sender – let’s say your Mother – to send you an email
message with the Subject line “Here you have, ;o)” that contains a message with
attachment – let’s say AnnaKournikova.jpg.vbs? A message like that probably
doesn’t make sense. In fact, it happens to be an instance of the Anna
Kournikova worm, and reading it can damage your system.
5.The Virus test: Does this email contain a virus? To determine this, you need
to install and use an anti-virus program.
You should apply these five tests to every piece of email with an attachment
that you receive. If any test fails, toss that email. If they all pass, then
you still need to exercise care and watch for unexpected results as you read
it.
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