Re: virus and XY as a file viewer...

[Peter Evans peter@xxxxxxxx]

Daniel Say, quoting http://www.sfu.ca/acs/virusbug.htm :

> It used to be that you had to open an attachment to get a virus
> via e-mail. Now you can get a virus simply by viewing a message.

The page doesn't even start to explain this legerdemain. My guess is
that you can "get" (be affected by) a virus by doing something with an
email client that the overly helpful author has disguised as reading a
message.

Carl Distefano:

> I would have thought it enough not to open attachments from any sender
> you don't personally know or any attachment you didn't specifically
> request.

Pretty good. Another factor is whether and how the message refers to the
attachment. I know that Carl (for example) would not, other perhaps than
when very sleepy or (excuse me) drunk, write any of

I send you this file in order to have your advice
I hope you can help me with this file that I send
I hope you like the file that I sendo you
This is the file with the information that you ask for

(all quoted from http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.sircam.worm@xxxxxxxx ) and
neither would he send "SirC32.exe" without a very compelling commentary, nor
"Tech Specs and Financials.doc.com" (ditto).

A more radical way to avoid most of this nonsense is, as Carl says, to
use a non-Microsoft OS.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Peter Evans peter@xxxxxxxx