Wildfire

No, we're not talking about the wildfires in the western part of
the U.S., or not even something that can harm your computer.

Some times you will get an E-mail with a virus warning like the
one that recently circulated on the web about the "A Card for
You" virus.

Without checking to see if the virus is real, many people
immediately forwarded the note to everyone they know, and urged
them to do the same. Many of them did so, and false information
spread like wildfire around the web. This particular virus was
exposed as a HOAX. If anyone had bothered to take the time and do
a search on "A Card for You", they would have found the web page
at Symantec which clearly reports it as a HOAX.

The only thing you are accomplishing is to frighten people and
cause unnecessary concern. In point of fact, you could
unwittingly cause problems for the people you send them to, like
the SULFNBK.EXE Warning did. This hoax urged people to search
for the "sulfnbk.exe" file on their computer, and if it was found
to delete it. Sulfnbk.exe, is a valid Microsoft Windows 95/98/Me
utility that is used to restore long file names, and if you use
any of these Windows systems, you will find it. This caused a
lot of people to delete it, and then they had to scramble to
restore it.

I recently received an E-mail outlining a persons experiences
with viruses, and he urged everyone not to accept any E-mails
with an attachment. He has set his mail reading program to
automatically delete any message with an attachment. This is an
over reaction. One of the advantages of the web is the wealth of
information available on the net.

Much of the information available includes files that are too
large to read as E-mail, and are automatically converted to a
file. These are text files and cannot hurt you, and neither can
an image file.

I will not accept an .exe file, a .doc file or a .zip file and
neither should you... UNLESS it is from a reputable, known source
and you have specifically requested this information.

We, for example, have the Eudora software available at our
Web Site and are authorized distributors. I personally have used
this program without problem for quite some time, and the same
software I use is available there. Does this mean you should
accept unsolicited files from friends - NO! They could unwittingly
be infected and could pass the virus along to you.

Blocking all attachments is not realistic. The maxim you should
follow is simple - don't download files unless you have requested
them - but let's face it, if you receive an unsolicited
attachment, be wary but don't panic. It can't hurt you unless you
open it.

Rather than simply rejecting any e-mail with an attachment, you
would probably be better served by first getting a good virus
protection program, and then examine each one on a case by case
basis.

You should automatically delete anything that ends with vbs,
.bat, .zip, .exe, .pif , and .scr files. Regardless of how they
may look, don't be fooled with an attachment that looks like
something else. The "Love-Letter-For-You" virus looked like a
text file when it arrived and it could have been thought to be
one. The attachment however ended in .vbs. and arrived with the
attachment name Love-Letter-For-You.TXT.vbs.

If you take reasonable care, you should be safe from real
viruses. Don't spread false rumors about viruses that are
actually hoaxes, as they will spread like wildfire, and cause a
lot of people undue concern.