Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Virus in Howard Mead's message on coho mailing list

[Stuart Staniford-Chen (stuart]

Eris Weaver wrote:
> 
> > > Please be aware that the attachment Happy99.exe sent by Howard Mead with
> > > the subject "re:tagline for cohousing community" contains a virus.
> > > According to my husband, (one of the techies of this world), if you end up
> > > downloading this email to your hard drive, do NOT open this email; just
> > > DELETE it.)
> 
> I've had experience with this virus.  Just READING the email will not
> activate the virus -- you have to run the executable program happy.exe by
> clicking on it in order to get the virus.  

This part is true.  
> You CANNOT GET A VIRUS JUST BY
> READING EMAIL...you have to open an attached executable file.
> 
> eris

This part used to be true until recently.  Unfortunately, Microsoft has now
advanced the state of the art in computers to the point where it is possible
to create viruses that operate solely because you read a message.  There have
been a series of vulnerabilities lately in various MS software which can be
exploited just by sending malicious HTML code in an email and having the user
read it.  I don't believe these exploits have been seen in viruses in the
wild, but they have been discussed extensively on security mailing lists in
the last few months.  It's only a matter of time.

If you want to be as safe as possible, go look at the list of security
bulletins at

http://www.microsoft.com/security/bulletins/current.asp?ID=4&Parent=1

and install all the patches there.  Subscribe to the mailing list for new
bulletins and install patches as they arise.  This will not make it truly
safe to read email on a Windows system, because there are a number of bugs
that Microsoft has not yet patched, and recent experience indicates that
their first attempt at solving a security problem sometimes opens as many new
holes as it closes old ones.

It's also an excellent idea to install an anti-virus system.  Get one that
can update itself over the Internet, and make sure you have it updated
regularly (like, weekly).  Run it regularly also.  If you work in a sizeable
organization, your organization should ideally be scanning incoming email for
viruses and attacks before they ever get to you.

At the moment, reading email on a Windows system is about as safe as having
unprotected sex with strangers in, oh, say 1987.

Stuart.

-- 
Stuart Staniford-Chen --- President --- Silicon Defense
                   stuart [at] silicondefense.com
(707) 822-4588                     (707) 826-7571 (FAX)