October
26, 2003
Grade
4 Teacher
SLM:
521-MC
McDaniel
College
Instructor: Charles Phillips
·
Part
1: Form Letter For Senders of Virus
Hoaxes
Dear Sender of Virus Warning,
Please refrain from sending out or forwarding these “virus warnings.” Although they may seem very convincing, just about all virus warnings are hoaxes. They are usually in e-mail form, contain bogus warnings, and they are meant to frighten and/or mislead you. The people that create these warnings enjoy the thrill of seeing how many people their email will reach. The best thing you can do is disregard and delete right away. Most importantly, do not open the email and definitely not the attachments if you do not recognize the sender. In the future, please check out the following websites that constantly update lists of these hoaxes:
http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp?id=hoaxes
or http://sarc.com/avcenter/hoax.html
Thank you for taking the time to read this reply.
Regards,
Matt Yates
·
Part
2: Virus Information/Tip Sheet
Overview:
Generally viruses are on the wane but occasionally
there are new ones created. There are 4
different types of viruses:
o Virus: small piece of software that piggybacks
itself on other programs.
o E-Mail Virus: Replicates itself inside of people’s email
address books and sends itself to those people.
o Worms: Uses networks and security holes to replicate
itself.
o Trojan Horse: A computer program that might claim to be a
game.
These are named “Viruses” because they are similar
to biological viruses in that they replicate and destroy. They created by humans and these viruses are
NOT living.
Protection:
o Use the operating
system: UNIX
o Use virus protection
software
o Avoid programs from unknown
sources on internet
o Avoid using and sharing
floppy disks - Use CD-R’s because information can not be changed.
o Enable MACRO virus
protection
o Never run MACROS in a
document
o Do NOT download attachments
ending in .EXE; .COM; or .VBS (these attachments give access to your computer’s
hard disk).
Origin:
People create these viruses for the general thrill
(such as the physical act of throwing a rock through a window), the “fun” of a
virus explosion, and last but not least, bragging rights.
History:
Viruses began in the late 1980’s with the proliferation of the IBM PC. The internet lead to viruses posted on message boards, trojan horses became popular, and viruses were passed around frequently on floppy disks.
Hoaxes:
These are usually emails that warn you about a virus that really doesn’t even exist. It is best to disregard and delete right away. These are created to frightened and mislead you. For more information, please visit:
http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp?WWW_URL=www.mcafee.com/anti-virus/default.asp
or