08.10.05

Attachment Opening Lecture

Posted in Malware, Windows at 10:08 am by Keith

Although there are some viruses that can infect your computer without user intervention through unpatched or unknown vulnerabilities most infections are enabled through the actions of the computer user. The most common method is email attachments. You should keep this in mind every time an attachment shows up in your inbox. There are some common sense things you can do to avoid opening a virus-laden attachment.

1. First and most important: don’t open an attachment that you aren’t expecting. Even if it is from someone you know! Many viruses will send through the infected computer’s email program or spoof the sender so that it looks like the email came from someone you know and trust.
2. Check out the file extension. If the file has a common file extension like .jpg or .gif it is probably safe. If you don’t recognize the file extension look it up. If it is any kind of executable file don’t open it (.pif, .scr, or .exe). Also, don’t be fooled by something like monkeypicture.jpg.exe; it’s the last file extension that matters. This is far from a foolproof method; so refer to rule #1.
3. Keep your PC up to date and secure. If you do open a virus-laden attachment it is less likely to do damage if your PC is up to date and secure. That means running Windows Update frequently (at least once per month), and running and updated Virus scan program (Bit Defender, AVG, McAfee, Nortons)

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