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Essay on Email Viruses
An email virus is a message sent with an executable attachment that can cause major harm to your computer. Viruses typically are not found in the body of an email message. They also usually do not exist in Usenet (newsgroup) postings, or simply float around the Internet. Viruses and other system destroying software can only exist in executable form (e.g. *.exe, *.bat), and cannot cause harm until they are executed (Denning, 1996).
While simply reading email, you are not executing any malicious code, thus the virus cannot do any damage. However, if you, or your computer automatically, download files
Attached to an email and run them, there is a chance the files could contain viruses and damage your computer. It is also very important that you do not, under any circumstances, allow your email program to automatically execute an attached file. You risk infection by doing so. Viruses are generally operating system-specific. Viruses created for a Windows computer cannot damage a Macintosh, and vice-versa.
Generally speaking, Email viruses are often spread by exploiting entries in personal address books or through vulnerabilities in the Windows operating system. We should all be aware of who contacts us on a regular basis and anything out of the ordinary should be questioned, whether it be someone from a McGill department, an outside institution, or a personal colleague.
Generally, unless you are expecting to receive an email attachment, never open one within your Email application. It is always better to save the attachment to your PC or network drive to allow the Virus software to automatically detect it as a virus. This is especially true with Email which has no safe guards and which sometimes can't handle large attachments. Be on the lookout for unusual filenames or file extentions like: .dat, .pif, .exe, scr, .bat (Outlook does this automatically) (McMillan, 1999)
