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Dummies guide to viruses
- To: "permaculture" <permaculture@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
- Subject: Dummies guide to viruses
- From: Mitra <mitra_lists@earth.path.net>
- Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 09:53:37 +1000
- In-reply-to: <LYRIS-100849-42753-2001.05.21-10.20.45--mitra_lists#earth.path.net@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
- Newsgroups: permaculture
- References: <LYRIS-107658-42582-2001.05.20-06.23.22--ralf.riedel#usm.ed u@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Here are some simple steps you can take. These are for any of the modern
Windows environments configured in the default way. In order to spread
Viruses need to target your typical dumb user, who hasn't taken these
steps, so if you take them you'll be protected against 99.9% of viruses.
You could probably get away with either buying Virus software (#1) or
taking all the remaining steps (#2..#6) but I really recommend doing the
lot. I've done all these things, and as a result have never been infected,
although I see probably one virus a week in email. None of the steps below
affect my ability to get work done, for example by stopping things that
there are good reasons to want to do.
1: Get a good virus protection software that updates itself regularly -
e.g. Norton Antivirus www.symantec.com or McAfee www.mcafee.com, PAY FOR
THE SUBSCRIPTION (about $10 or $20 per year), believe me its worth the
money compared to rebuilding a trashed system.
2: Open My Computer -> C:/ then choose View -> Folder Options -> View, and
make sure that there is NO check mark by "Hide file extensions for known
file types", this will make sure that you can see the type on files before
opening them.
3: Set the correct options in the programs most commonly used with Macros
Open Microsoft Word
- if its Word2000 go to Tools -> Macros -> Security and set to High - there
is almost never a reason why a document will contain Macros for a good reason.
- if its earlier versions of Word its something like Options ->
General and make sure it has "Enable Macro Virus protection" turned on.
Do the same thing in Microsoft Excel, and if you have it Microsoft Power Point
There is probably something similar in Outlook - I don't use it, if you
know how it works let me know and I'll update this file.
4: ONLY open something where you know the type cannot hold viruses,
specifically, where the name is .gif, .jpg, .swf (flash/ shockwave)
.txt and (if you've taken the precautions above) *.doc and *.xls , .html
is probably OK meaning that its as safe as a web page, although people keep
finding vulnerabilities there.
In particular look out for tricky things that are something like
xxxx.jpg.vbs which is a Visual Basic virus pretending to be a JPG, its
the letters after the last period that count.
Just because it comes from someone you trust does NOT make it safe. Once
your friends machine is infected the virus can pretend to be her.
In particular do NOT EVER OPEN ANYTHING ENDING IN .EXE .VBS or .SCR these
are really commonly used for viruses. There have been programs sent around
as one of these which trashed systems but just looked like something fun.
5: Do NOT pass on virus warnings UNLESS they are dated, and have Links to
the news story or a web page giving more information AND you have checked
that link to check it makes sense. Any other Virus warning is itself a
virus, passed along from dumb email user to dumb email user.
6: Update your operating system frequently, open Internet Explorer - go to
Tools -> Windows Update and choose Product Updates, in particular install
anything labelled a critical update or that talks about security - this is
USUALLY easy.
Just in case you are interested I've attached a file listing of unsafe file
extensions taken from McAfee. Note just how many there are, also note how
it is a .TXT file and so cannot contain a virus, so its safe to open (if
you trust me :-) This is why its better to have
Hope this is helpful, if you know what you are doing, and have suggestions
for me to add to this please email me privately - mitra@earth.path.net
- Mitra
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