Giving you more know how of Email virus is the intent of this article. Internet browsing is not the only pastime for people.
Getting connected and using the computer for communication is also a pastime for many. For those who are not web browser savvy you may by now know how to send and receive mails.
You may open a mail account and soon you will find so many mails from people you do not seem to know. Sometimes you even find some junk mail from people you seem to know. It is a bad world out there and just beware even if you get a stupid mail that seems to be from your friend do not open it. For now crooks adopt spoofing-A technique by which they use another email id so that you may accept the mail and open it. Phishing is a means used where the "From email id" is spoofed to appear as though it is from your credit card company or your bank. This is to entice you to part with your PIN number and other password with which they will rob your account.
Spamming is popular on the net. Advertising companies target your mail box in a means to send adverts across. But that is not all. You may find a variety of annoying and destructive mail or sometimes mail that has attachments. Many times these attachments contain
- Worms
- Viruses
- Trojan Horses
What is an email virus, worm or Trojan? Email viruses are not viruses in the true sense of the term. They are more Trojans and worms. Normal computer viruses replicate on its own; but Email viruses cannot replicate without human intervention. Yet for all that they have cause major damage and shut down many email systems.
Means of Infection
Attachments
Humans are gullible and it is this gullibility that virus writers use. The only means of infecting your computer via emails is by opening an attachment that contains a Trojan, a worm or a virus. Once you do this you infect your computer and cause the damage the virus or Trojan is supposed to accomplish. If it is a worm then you have caused more extensive damage not only to your self but to all on the internet. A worm is an email sending virus and send emails to all the others using the email id's from you're the address book of your mail account. The worm thus uses your mail box to spread to others.
Email Sending Virus: Spam Infects You
Email sending virus-If you know what file extension are then remember this always when opening your mailbox. Any file with extensions
.pif, .exe, .com, .vbs, .vb, .bat, .bin, .dot, .reg, .js, .jse, .scr(Trojans), .wmz, .ocx, .wsf, .wmf are dangerous files do not open such attachment if you are not sure. In case you do not know what extensions are just do not open any files if you are not sure who the sender is. Also if you find too many extensions do not open the file. For Example it may look like letter.txt.exe or personal.doc.vbs.
Email Client Configuration
Another means of infection is the configuration of your email client. Under any circumstance do not allow any program to "automatically download and run any email attachments". It may contain viruses that can damage your PC. Also many email clients allow MIME extensions allowing others to encrypt and embed files and send it. Opening files from a sender you do not know can also give you an infection.
For most cases it is your email client that you use that cause the most problems. The latest email virus the recent KAK virus (JS/Kak, WScript.Kak, Kakworm, VBS/Kak) exploited a problem in the email client MS-Outlook signatures to spread. This used an ActiveX flaw and spread. Nimda activated on some machines by itself and is a combination of a mass mailer worm and virus.
Damage
Email viruses destroy and damage files on computer systems. Most viruses and Trojans are used now-a-days to get financial information that is stored on the computer. Like password and credit card information. Email's are the easiest way to download Trojans which is then used by crooks to obtain personal information. Some email viruses are capable of producing bulk email or spam by sending itself to all the others that are in your address book. The damage can be extensive and cause a denial of service attack on any email server.
Prevention
Email virus detection and email virus protection in the form or email filters are many. Spoofing is used to bypass these filters. Prevention is better than cure and the best way to prevent being infected is
- Do not open any mail from people you do not know.
- Do not open any mail that looks suspicious. Even, if you get, a 'mail bounce back', when you have not sent a mail.
- Do not open any attachments if it contains any of the extensions detailed above. Do not open files that have extensions that you do not know about.
- Better not to use an email client. Even if you are using one see that you are able to see the extensions of filenames downloaded. Also disable the signature and auto run features that are exploited by some viruses.
- Get a spam filter or activate it with your mail server such that it filters out spam. Since some spam contain Trojans and viruses that can cause damage.
- Be careful of any file even from known sources run and antivirus scan before attempting to open the document or file.
Removal
- Removal of the virus is best done by getting an antivirus and running it
- Also regularly update your antivirus as statistics show that one virus is generated every three minutes.
- Get you computer scanned online by a reputed antivirus scanner like PC-Cillin or Bit defender.
- In case of new viruses look up alerts and find out ways used to prevent and remove such email viruses.
Over the years quite a few email viruses have turned out to be hoaxes; a search for hoaxes email viruses would turn up with some interesting results. One interesting hoax is the invitation email virus. It says do not open any email with an attached file named invitation. The warning is that the attachment opens an "Olympic Torch" that will burn the whole hard disk. This is untrue but the hoax was very popular and spread rapidly. Just be ever vigilant for any email virus and check out antivirus websites for alerts and hoaxes before passing on any warning.
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