The weakest security link? It's you

[ronjor]

What you don't know, can hurt you
"Unfortunately, people are still not thinking before opening an (e-mail) attachment. Every time a new virus comes out, people go out and do the same thing they shouldn't be doing," said Mike Breth, IT audit manager for the Westfield Group, an insurance and financial services company.

ZDNet (http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5278576.html)

[Rita]

-{ Quote: "What you don't know, can hurt you
"Unfortunately, people are still not thinking before opening an (e-mail) attachment. Every time a new virus comes out, people go out and do the same thing they shouldn't be doing," said Mike Breth, IT audit manager for the Westfield Group, an insurance and financial services company.

ZDNet (http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5278576.html)" }-
Hi ron
should you never open an email from someone you dont know?Does the virus scanner scan emails for viruses before you open them?
you have a nice eve :)
rita

[ronjor]

Hi Rita!

Most, but not all, antivirus programs scan your email these days.

You should configure your email program for security. Link here. (http://people.cornell.edu/pages/drb1/Windows/OutLookExpress/OutLookExpress.htm)

I received a zip file yesterday and the header said it was a bounced email.
Since I didn't send any zip files to anyone, I deleted the message.

[GlobalForce]

Ron, good find for anyone still using Outlook. ;)

GF

[ronjor]

-{ Quote: "Ron, good find for anyone still using Outlook. ;)

GF" }-

A lot of people do. And, a lot of us quit using it years ago. :D

[nick s]

-{ Quote: "should you never open an email from someone you dont know?" }-
For me, never. Having said that, I always preview and filter my e-mail at the server before I download and open it.

Nick

[Tassie_Devils]

Rita, you can also get a program like MailWasher that will go out and get your email headers from server, you can read the messages [in plain text] all totally safe.

After you view the messages, you can then choose to delete ones you do not want, then open your email program safely if you want to then download the email itself. That way, only messages you want will be downloaded from the server and the spam/junk/unknown can be deleted off your ISP's server.

Of course, if using Outlook/Express, make sure that program itself is set to still read in plain text. ;) Double safety.

http://www.firetrust.com/

Unfortunately this PRO is not free...

However, here is a link to the last known FREE version of MailWasher. It has a lot of the features of PRO, and will do the job. It will auto import your Outlook/Express settings, so virtually no setup to do. I forget if it will do Hotmail/Yahoo, etc.

http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/page2.html#Mailwasher

Cheers, TAS