thomas_pokrefke@juno.com wrote:
>
> I do not claim to be a virus expert, but I would like to share some virus
> information with you. Those who are time-limited can jump to the moral
> at the end.
>
> You simply cannot get a virus from reading email. There is no possible
> way. A virus is a program, just like Excel or Word. You can't run Excel
> just by looking at it, you have to tell your computer to run the program.
>
> The same is true with viruses. You have to execute them (intentionally
> or otherwise) before they eat your hard disk and delete your files. Some
> virus live in the boot sector of your hard drive, and some attach
> themselves to the end of executable files.
>
> Macro viruses eat your hard drive when you open the file they are
> attached to. If you don't know who sent you the file, delete it. Or
> scan it with your anti-virus program. Just don't open it.
>
> The moral: You cannot get a virus from reading your email. You can get
> a virus from reading files attached to your email. You can get a virus
> from downloading programs from the internet. You can get a virus from
> the nasty girl you picked up in the bar (you know the one - she kept
> looking better the more you drank).
>
> Get an anti-virus program and use it.
>
> A one-time victim of a virus attack, but never again,
> Thomas James Pokrefke, III
> 1970 MGB
> thomas_pokrefke@juno.com
> http://ocean.st.usm.edu/~pokrefke
Ditto no expert, but I understand that virus's can be carried in MS Word
documents and activated on one's machine by using Word to open the
document. The parallels with EMail and reading messages seem close to
me.
PaulH.
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