[pchelpers] Re: scanning and scanning

Hi Pen

> Morning ya all,

And a good evening here.

> May sound like a silly question and maybe not answerable but here we go.

Far be such thoughts from us.

> I often receive mail that has an attachment that has been forwarded several 
> time by the time it gets to me. I put all attachments on my desk top so I 
> can scan them IF they are from people I trust but when I scan then open 
> there is another message box with an attachment then I scan that and open it 
> and there is another message box with a attachment. (Hope this makes sense) 
> if it has been forwarded 4-5 times before I get it I have to open it several 
> times until I get to the original mail. 

No, this doesn't make sense, but you're explaining it well. This kind of 
Russian doll phenomenon with forwarded messages attached to instead of 
inside the new one is due to people having the wrong setting (forward 
messages as attachment instead of inline) and/or email programs that are 
not standards compliant.

> What I want to know is does one scan 
> check all those attachments or is it necessary to scan every attachment. as 
> I open each box.
> Pen hoping I made sense 

Although some experts say it is best to scan attachments before opening 
them, this seems to be an unnecessary precaution. If your antivirus 
program knows about a virus, it should not let you open up an attachment 
containing that virus. So i'd say just go ahead and open up those 
attachments without scanning them, but only if all of the following 
conditions are fulfilled:

1) you just checked to make sure there isn't an update available for 
your AV
2) you trust the sender
3) the sender says s/he attached it in normal, credible language

An additional precaution worth considering is not opening attachments 
until the next day unless they're urgent. See the 1st part here:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Antivirus_software#Preventing_infection



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