How To Identify A Virus Infected E-mail Message?

It is often difficult to identify an infected e-mail message. The way modern viruses and mass mailing internet worms function, messages can seem to arrive from friends or colleagues. In reality most infected messages are being automatically sent by another infected machine who has no idea their machine even has a problem. Since the virus or worm pretend to be the owner of the infected computer it can be hard for you when you get unexpected email messages from them.

Here are a few important things to watch for:

1) E-mail messages from people you don't know (including and especially SPAM). These are usually the culprits that put a virus on your computer.

2) E-mail messages from friends or family that you were not expecting (especially if they contain attachments). It is possible that these may not be from people you know, but may actually be spam messages.

3) Attachments in an email with subject lines that seem inappropriate or strange, even if it's from someone you know. For example, an email from your retired father who is on a beach in Mexio titled "Update on system report" is suspicious.

4) You should NEVER EVER launch an attachment that ends with an .exe, .pif, .com, .bat, or .scr extension until you have scanned it with up-to-date virus scanner. Even files ending with .doc, and .xls (word and excel documents) can carry macro viruses and should be scanned. It does not matter if you completely 100% trust the person it came from. SCAN IT.

5) Never open SPAM email. Spam email is too easy to copy and use to send a nasty virus. I'm not saying spammers send viruses, but virus senders/creators do use spam-like messages to send their viruses, Trojans, and internet worms around.

6) If you're not 100% sure the email is legitimate, call the sender and ask before opening the attachment. If you're sure you've received an e-mail message with a virus, you should delete the email WITHOUT opening the email or the attachment. If it is important, it can always be resent.

7) Email is becoming the #1 method for viruses, worms and Trojan horses to spread. Take extra special care with your email, and you will not only protect yourself, but prevent yourself from accidentally becoming a spreader of virus loaded email messages.

The smartest thing to do is simply install a very affordable antivirus program (like Norton, McAfee, or PC-cillin) and set it to automatically scan all incoming and outgoing email messages and attachments. This way you protect your own computer, and make sure you don't forward any infected messages to your friends and family.

The most important thing you have to realize is that viruses cannot get on your computer by themselves. You do have to put them there by opening files that can contain the harmful viruses. They could wipe out your hard drive, which could be detrimental for you if you have important files stored there and for which you don't have a back up disk.

If you do get a virus on your computer, you don't have to panic. If a virus is active in the memory, the anti-virus software may not be able to detect it. If you really want to make sure your computer doesn't have a virus, turn it off and reboot it using a disk that you know doesn't contain any virus such as your antivirus software's recovery disk.

Listed below are more articles related to the above article from the "Security" article category.

People interested in the above article "How To Identify A Virus Infected E-mail Message?" are also interested in the related articles listed below:

Learn These Easy Tricks To Prevent Any Password Hacker's Attack On You

Your computer safety and security is not limited to anti-virus software, anti-spyware software, and firewalls, because the passwords themselves can be targeted by unauthorized people. It would be better for your overall security if you take the necessary precautions and means when it comes to dealing with password protection. Learn how you can protect your passwords to all your online accounts that even the hardest hacker cannot dare to attempt to retrieve any of your passwords.

Your Home Computer Will Be Safe and Secured If You Follow These Steps

As a home computer user, you need to make sure that your computer is safe from any form of malicious online attack, including hacking. You might have important data including any identification in your computer which intruders can have access to. It is therefore very important for you to find out just how safe your computer is from these potential attacks.

FTP Servers and Security - Three methods that Secure FTP Servers use

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) has been the basis for file transfer since the dawn of the internet. The truly remarkable feature about FTP was that it was operating system independent. Files could be smoothly transferred between Unix, Windows and any other operating system. The other cool feature about FTP was that a simple validation mechanism consisting of a username and a password could be used to limit access to files. However, the actual data itself was transferred unencrypted and it was easy to intercept and listen in on an FTP connection.

How To Remove IE Antivirus Quickly and Easily

Over 75 per cent of all computers are infected by viruses. Your computer may be infected also. If you suspect your computer has already been infected by the IEAntivirus, use the FREE IE Antivirus Detection Scan below to remove IEAntivirus and other known computer viruses and spyware infections.

Finding your way around Antivirus XP 2008

The XP Antivirus 2008 is a deceitful, harmful and widespread counterfeit antispyware that has destroyed many computers on the internet. XP Antivirus 2008 occurs when a fake video codec is installed that contains malware, trojans and/or other viruses.

How to Identify and Beat the win32 Adware Virtumonde Virus

The win32/adware.virtumonde virus is a Trojan horse virus which is annoying and generally a nightmare to get rid of. Most people will experience a virus at some point in their life but this one, I have to say, is one of the worst there is. I say that because of its annoyance rather than it completely destroying your computer.

Five Year Forecast for the Security Alarms Market in the UK

In this UK access control market research report we have studied the access control sector in private commercial applications and public non-residential applications together with use in retail, domestic, industrial and financial sectors. Major applications include hotels, offices and health establishments. The report analyses various types of equipment, some of which are integrated with other installations such as CCTV, intruder and fire alarm systems.