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Stop Spam and Viruses at Same Time by Jim Edwards
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Stop Spam and Viruses at Same Time
- by Jim Edwards
(c) Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved
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The recent outbreak of viruses caused no end of headaches for
those infected as well as computer users who repeatedly received
tainted email.
Though this virus didn't rate high for physical destruction, it
did rate as one of the wildest and most criminally intent
viruses ever.
"Bad Trans" reportedly logs actual keystrokes and then transmits
credit card and password data it captures to the person who
released it.
If that isn't scary enough, the old safety rule of "you have to
open the attachment to get the virus" doesn't apply here! Anyone
using Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express runs the risk of
infection if they use the preview pane - which most do.
Virtually anyone who had their anti-virus software up to date
found the virus relatively easy to stop before infecting the
system, but they also found dealing with the virus highly
inconvenient.
Every time an infected email arrived they had to stop and clean
it up.
Adding to the inconvenience - this latest virus carries a 40K
attachment, no small file on a dial-up connection, especially if
you get it emailed to you several times a day.
Quite frankly, I got extremely tired of downloading this virus,
which seemed to come in wave after wave.
Out of curiosity, I looked to see if I could find a program that
would let me check my email before downloading it.
I went to the popular download site http://www.download.com/ and
started looking around.
After some searching I discovered a program called "Spam
Buster", a free program that allows you to check the headers in
your email box before downloading to your computer.
What makes the program so great is that you can see who the
email is from, the subject line (a big spam tip-off), the name,
size of the file and the date.
Now this solution won't apply in every instance (no solution
ever does) but it really helped out this time.
Every version of the virus I saw carried two easily identifiable
characteristics - an re: in the usually blank subject line and
an underscore ( _ ) in front of the return email address.
With this program I was able to immediately spot the virus and
eliminate it with a simple mouse click.
However, I noticed an excellent side benefit!
I also eliminated the vast majority of unsolicited email
bombarding my computer daily.
Rather than wait for dozens of messages to download, I quickly
click the message subjects and push delete.
What a time saver!
This last wave of viruses should teach all of us that prevention
and preparation hold the key to keeping our online sanity.
Make sure to keep your anti-virus program updated weekly and
consider checking your email before it ever downloads to your
computer.
Furthermore, expect viruses to get more sophisticated and more
destructive, and it is your responsibility to protect your
computer, your data, and personal information.
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