Computing
How to Avoid E-mail Threats By
Jay Dougherty
Checking your e-mail has become a dangerous business. The
number and types of e-mail borne threats that can cause harm
to your computer or your privacy are growing.
Sometimes the actual danger imposed by these threats can be
over hyped, but you still need to know what could constitute
a dangerous e-mail message and how to respond to the threat.
Q: Can I get a virus just
by reading an e-mail message?
A: When all e-mail was sent as plain text, it was impossible
to contract a computer virus just by reading e-mail. That's
because something - a programme, worm, or other active
threat - actually has to run on your computer in order to
infect it. When e-mail is sent in HTML format - the same
format used to create Web pages, on which all sorts of
programmes can run automatically - the possibility that you
could receive a virus upon reading an e-mail message does
exist.
Increasingly today, we all send and receive e-mail in HTML
format, which means that we're all more vulnerable to
contracting a potentially destructive computer virus just by
reading our mail. There are, however, three ways to
safeguard against this.
The first is to keep your e-mail programme up-to-date,
downloading and applying the latest security patches and
fixes. The second is to use a current-generation virus
scanner with built-in e-mail scanning, and keep the virus
signatures current. Most anti-virus programmes offer
automatic scanning of both incoming and outgoing e-mail
messages.
The third way involves setting up your e-mail programme to
allow messages to be read only in plain text format. Most
e-mail programmes provide this option. In Microsoft's
Outlook programme, for instance, you would open the Tools
menu, and select Options.
Then, from the Options dialog box, click E-mail Options, and
select the check box labeled "Read all standard mail in
plain text." When you do this, any mail that arrives in HTML
format is converted into plain text, and any harmful code
that might have run automatically is effectively
neutralized.
Remember, though, that most e-mail viruses are contracted
when you perform some action, such as opening an infected
attachment or clicking a link that takes you to a site that
downloads a virus on to your computer.
So the golden rule of reading e-mail is this: if it looks
suspicious, don't open anything attached to it or click any
links in it. These days, in fact, it makes sense not to
click links in e-mail messages at all. Instead, if you think
a legitimate source has sent you a message, open a web
browser separately and visit the web site on your own.
Q: Colleagues of mine
were talking about e-mail bombs at work. What is an e-mail
bomb?
A: An e-mail "bomb" refers to an immense number of e-mail
messages sent to an account in an effort to bring the
account down. When an e-mail server is flooded with e-mail
messages, it is unable to devote cycles to other e-mail
users and effectively becomes useless. An account that
receives an e-mail bomb will also experience an interruption
in the transfer and processing of legitimate mail, as well.
E-mail bombs are particularly problematic because even if an
e-mail server is brought down in an attempt to stave off the
problem, the e-mail server will resume where it left off
when it is restarted, continuing to deliver the messages
that constitute the bomb.
Hackers can send e-mail bombs using tools that are not too
difficult to obtain. Another type of "bombing" occurs when a
user signs someone up to multiple newsletter services and
other automatic e-mail generation services that can bring a
person's inbox to its knees.
The good news is that most individual users rarely have
trouble with e-mail bombs. The bad news is that the only way
to recover from an e-mail bomb is probably to contact your
Internet service provider to obtain help. It may be
necessary for you to disable or change your e-mail address,
at least temporarily.
Q: Over the past month, I
have received more spam than ever before. I don't understand
how these people are getting my e-mail address. Can you
help?
A: Senders of spam and potentially harmful e-mail use a
number of tactics to secure your e-mail address. If you have
posted your e-mail address anywhere on the Internet, it can
be "harvested" by programmes designed to scour the Internet
and retrieve freely available e-mail addresses.
To prevent this from happening, never post your e-mail
address anywhere on the Internet - including message boards
and personal web sites - in an unaltered form. If you must
post your address somewhere online, write it in a form that
is understandable by humans but not by a machine, such as "yourname
- at - hotmail.com."
Also, take advantage of the multiple e-mail accounts
provided by most Internet service providers today, and set
yourself up at least two accounts: one that you hand out
only to friends and colleagues, and another that you give to
anyone else - including online stores. When you give out
your e-mail address to anyone online, you simply never know
whether that address may ultimately end up in the hands of
mass marketers or spammers.
Have a computer question? Send it to the Computer Helper at
jayd@csi.com.
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