One thing you can do if you are concerned about email virus is to use hotmail for your email. It is free and it automatically scans all attachments for viruses using McAufee (which is the top virus scan software and updated on a daily basis). Just go to hotmail.com (a part of MSN) to open your hotmail account. It is just like yahoo, etc. in that you can also access your mail from any computer.

-- Karen (mountains_mama@hotmail.com), November 27, 2001

Answers

I've been on the net since 93 and have yet to get any virii on my computer. I routinely delete quite a few email virii sent from Internet Explorer users though. Virtually all of the email virii use Internet Explorer to propagate themselves. I use Netscape 4.78 for email and webrowser. It's much more secure than IE. Never set your email or web browser to auto-download files. Even if you auto-scan with an antivirus program it's still not a good idea. Don't assume just because a file appears to end in .jpg or .gif that it's a picture a friend sent and therefore safe. The .exe can be hidden in the filename.

You should also protect your computer from port probing. Port probes, installation of spyware, etc happens without your knowledge. Firewalls prevent this. A good free firewall is available from zonealarm.com. I would not be on the internet without a firewall.

There are also spyware parasites installed on your computer from visiting common websites. You likely have some on your computer right now without knowing or authorizing it. I use "Ad-Aware" from www.lavasoft.de and run it every other day or so.

Also, keep current with Microsoft Windows updates, they routinely have security patches available for win 98/ME/2000. Windows2000 is more secure than 95/98/ME if you are able to upgrade. These are all simple ways to be more secure without getting too technical.

-- Dave (something@somewhere.com), November 27, 2001.

some info on this latest virus.

BadTrans.B

It propogates through Email with a small file attachment (~29k).Low damage value to systems, but it installs a keystroke recorder and trojan horse backdoor to let hackers access the keystroke log -this information can then be mined for passwords, credit card numbers, etc. And yes, because it's propogating by Email - en masse - it's slowing down the Internet (once again). The cure is relatively easy, and Norton AV (and, I'm guessing, most other AV software) can now detect and remove it - so run your AV software updates and mind incoming Emails. The easiest tell-tale is that it seems to put an underscore before the return-reply Email address: _myname@somesite.com

For more info: http://securityresponse.symantec.co...trans.b@mm.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/56/23016.html

-- Dave (something@somewhere.com), November 27, 2001.

oops, that more info url should read;

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.badtrans. b@mm.html

-- Dave (something@somewhere.com), November 27, 2001.

good advice Karen and Dave, later I am going to print this and load osme of these things.

-- Melissa (me@home.net), November 28, 2001.