virus warning
- Thread starter Thiele
- 7 comments
- 398 views
Iceman
Staff Emeritus
- 5,491
- Wisconsin, USA
Looks like your friend was a behind the times on this one:
http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/olympicvirus.html
http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/olympicvirus.html
- 36,812
- Scotland
- GTP_daan
If an email about a virus contains the phrase, "This is the worst virus announced by CNN, it has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever" then it is a hoax.
Every single virus hoax email contains those lines.
All this spreading of miss information really annoys me. If you get an email about the worst virus ever "reported on CNN and confirmed by Microsoft" then it is fake. If you get an email about a virus, do a search on McAfee, Symatec, google etc to see if its real or not. Don't just blindly panic and send it on to anyone you've ever met ever.
And that's not strictly true Integra. If a friend's computer is infected, it may send an email to all the people in its address book, which means you will get an unexpected attachment from a friend. The bottom line is, even if you know who its from, don't open any attachments unless you know exactly what it is.
Every single virus hoax email contains those lines.
All this spreading of miss information really annoys me. If you get an email about the worst virus ever "reported on CNN and confirmed by Microsoft" then it is fake. If you get an email about a virus, do a search on McAfee, Symatec, google etc to see if its real or not. Don't just blindly panic and send it on to anyone you've ever met ever.
And that's not strictly true Integra. If a friend's computer is infected, it may send an email to all the people in its address book, which means you will get an unexpected attachment from a friend. The bottom line is, even if you know who its from, don't open any attachments unless you know exactly what it is.
GilesGuthrie
Staff Emeritus
- 11,038
- Edinburgh, UK
- CMDRTheDarkLord
Integra Type R
It's a very simplistic approach that (as daan says) completely ignores the phenomenon of auto-forwarding and spoofing.
Humans have very sophisticated information processing capabilities. In short, if an e-mail comes from someone you know, you will be able to tell whether it's genuine, because you will know if it's consistent with that person's behaviour.
Also, I'm editing out most of the "warning" text. These hoaxes are about getting attention. Let's not do them the privilege, eh?
Evolution.
(Banned)
- 3,722
Or just don't use an address book. Write the emails and such on a notebook paper sheet or such.
