[JA] Re: Dummie question on virus/worm
- From: thepccat@xxxxxxxx
- To: juno_accmail@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 3 Oct 2002 09:34:06 -0700
I don't know if this is your situation, but everybody should be aware
that many of the popular viruses in the last year [they are really mostly
worms but whatever] gain their power by exploiting holes in Microsoft
Internet Explorer [IE] which are now several years old. For example, if
you are running IE 5.0 you are exposed, and you must upgrade IE and THEN
slather on the patches. IMHO IE, if present on your computer in any form,
should be updated to 5.5 or 6.0 [your choice, I tried 6 and will go back
to 5.5 and see if it is more stable], then go to the update site and
start getting and installing your patches. [One of the holes used for
some virii can be patched, as I recall, from 5.01 with certain service
packs, but, to be sure in the future the given advice is IE to 5.5 or 6]
So, everybody who does not know the version of IE you are running --
launch IE, go to Help>About Internet Explorer, look at the numbers
following "Version" and see where you stand. You can depend on antiviral
software and little Juno client tricks to avoid having suspected virus
files open on your screen, but the patches not only prevent the automatic
propagation but also do your part to keep the Internet clean ;-).
If you have upgraded IE and put on the patches, you can still get virii,
but you have to click on the attachment which will be shown [and from
what you know that would be "stupid"].
The current batch of viruses have symptoms similar to those mentioned by
people here. You can get them seemingly from anyone, and they often have
content which seems to be what somebody would have on their HD. Some also
have their built in SMTP emailing facility. On the other hand, if you get
your email by dialup Juno client and do not surf the Internet, these
things, as the cartoonist [Cunningham?] noted "will not get far on foot."
We tend to look at viruses from the point of "bad" people who write and
spread these things. The recent history of these items suggest the "bad"
individuals who make these molehills into mountains include those
"unsophisticated" users who do not keep up with their patches.
thepccat
On Wed, 2 Oct 2002 15:34:18 -0400 outtolaunch@xxxxxxxx writes:
[...]
> The dummie question is: If I'm NOT online at the time, can
> anything be downloading? Post-deletion virus scans come up
> clean so far, but....
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