Hello List, As everyone should know, an email sent to the list by Bill Missett with the subject of "Unidentified Subject", is yet again another virus/trojan/worm sent to the list. Just for everyone's information, any email you ever get warning of a virus that has been "classified by Microsoft", is either a hoax, or a virus/trojan/worm itself (as is the case with Bill's message). Both Microsoft, and Intel, never classify ANY virus, as they are not in the antivirus business.
Please let me share with everyone what steps I feel are appropriate to prevent the proliferation of these. 1) Everyone should have, and be running, a copy of Zonealarm. They offer a FREE version, which works unbelieveably well! This software IS IMPERATIVE if you have a broadband, always on connection, such as DSL, or a cable modem. It is fully documented, automatically notifies you of any updates, and will protect you from probes/netbios session and name attempts/email trojans, worms, and viruses. You WILL need to tell the software which programs are allowed to access the internet, but have the option of telling it once, and letting it remember. Also, you will get to see just how many probes and connection attempts are made on your machine, which will probably suprise most people. ***** NOTE ***** If you go reporting every probe and access attempt to your ISP, you will be labelled "the boy who cried wolf". These things happen constantly. Also, Zonealarm will "quarantine" suspicious email attachments, mark them with a big "ZA" icon, and warn you if you attempt to open them. You are well advised to delete any attachments that Zonealarm marks, unless you KNOW what the attachment is, who sent it, and are EXPECTING to receive it. Zonealarm is available for FREE from..... http://www.zonelabs.com Scroll to the bottom of the above page for the link to the free version. 2) Microsoft's Outlook, and Outlook Express, are the most vulnerable email clients out there. By default, they will execute macros and Visual Basic scripts. This is what causes all of the trouble. I know that most people who use any of the various Outlook products will probably not change their email client, which is why I recommend Zonealarm. For those who want a more secure email client, there are many of them out there. A few that come to mind are Eudora, and The Bat. While it may take a while to learn how to use any of these clients, they are all very powerful, and will generally protect you from all of the little "email nasties" out there. Another little note. While the hoax emails may seem harmless enough, in reality, they are more than they first appear. These are usually started by scumbag email "mass marketers", otherwise known as spammers. Believe it or not, they use software to grab email addresses as it passes across one of their email servers. This is called "address grepping" software. While it may appear as no big deal, these rats then add your email address to their database, and then sell it to other "mass email advertisers". They are the scourge of the internet, and the lowest form of scum on the planet. Some typical examples of their handiwork are things like.... "If you send this email to 10 friends, "company X" will mail you a coupon for $20.00 off your next purchase". "Email this to all of your friends! Movie/book "X" is coming out, and we need to put a stop to it!" You should get the general idea. ANYTHING that has you add your email address to a list of them is, for certain, the bottom feeders harvesting valid email addresses again. I really didn't mean to go on a long diatribe, but if this information helps even one person, I believe it is worth it. -- Best regards, Solar mailto:[email protected] -- The silver-list is a moderated forum for discussion of colloidal silver. To join or quit silver-list or silver-digest send an e-mail message to: [email protected] -or- [email protected] with the word subscribe or unsubscribe in the SUBJECT line. To post, address your message to: [email protected] Silver-list archive: http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/index.html List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]>
