Avoiding Trojan Horses, viruses, adware and other evil programs
We all know the story of the Trojan horse. The Greek siege of Troy had lasted for ten years so the Greeks devised a new ruse: a giant hollow wooden horse filled with Greek Soldiers as a gift.
Well spammers, virus writers, adware writers use that same method, the Trojan horse, in fact there is a type of virus called a “Trojan horse”.
Scammers typically work with two methods. In both methods they devise a cleverly crafted email that looks like it's from a friend, coworker, acquaintance or even from a stranger hoping your curiosity will get the better of you. ( See note 1 for more info. )
Also the email may and most likely WILL LOOK LIKE A LEGITIMATE EMAIL, scammers may use Kodak's or eBay's or some other websites real email as a template.
Method 1 - They email you telling you that you have an E-card, or someone posted a picture they want you to see or anything. TELLING YOU TO CLICK A LINK.
Method 2 -They send you an email with the file attached.
RULES:
- If you have no idea who the email is from DO NOT open any attachments, in fact it's better not to open the email.
- If the email contains a file that you were not expecting DO NOT open it until you have confirmed with the sender that they sent it.
- Never download files from the internet that were linked to in an email. Exceptions are PDF's.
- Use common sense, if an email is very detailed using your name and several specific details about something you're working on, generally an attachment is fine to open so long as you didn't discuss details at starbucks. ( See note 2 for more info. )
Follow these rules and 99% of viruses will be stopped.
NOTES:
• Appear to be from:
- FRIENDS - These emails typically result from your friend's computer being infected and may use your full name or nickname in the email and just say “Check this out”.
- COWORKER – These appear to be sent from a coworker. The virus gets the name and email addresses from your company's website.
• To be exactly accurate, theoretically it is possible if a friend were to save a email draft on a compromised computer. This still is extremely rare.