[pmmail-list] how can I avoid virus'es in the future?

[Günter Minnerup]

> By your attaching an infected file!
Yes, of course, as I said in my original comment. However, most people
only attach files to emails occasionally, hence my view that scanning
every outgoing message is absurd overkill. A daily scan of the hard
drive on boot-up, or, to be 100% sure, a scan of any files to be
attached to a message should satisfy the most paranoid.
My comment had a serious background: there are a lot of people who
believe that ordinary emails can carry viri. They can't, not even
those from Outlook. I get sick of all those hoax warnings doing the
rounds telling people not to read this or that message because it
contains a virus. With a bit more education about how viri work,
there'd be a lot less hoaxes and a lot more care handling attachments
(which includes, as you point out, forwarding messages with unknown
attachments).

Regards,
Günter 
                           
Günter Minnerup
Visiting Fellow
Centre for European Studies/School of History
University of New South Wales
Sydney NSW 2052
Tel. (+61 2) 9385 1363 (work)
Tel. (+61 2) 9398 3646 (home)
mailto:g.minnerup@unsw.edu.au


On Monday, May 5, 2003, 9:33:25 PM, Richard Grevers wrote:

> On Mon, 5 May 2003 21:07:18 +1000, Günter Minnerup <g.minnerup@unsw.edu.au> 
> wrote:

>>> He asked, I responded. AFAIK, the guy said he used Pmm as the
>>> mailer. Pmm *is* able to transmit virii. What text-based mailer are
>>> you referring to?
>>
>> How can PMM transmit virii (whatever they are: the correct pedantic
>> plural is viri)? PMM send pure ASCII text, which cannot contain
>> executables.
>>
> By your attaching an infected file! And although it wouldn't affect PMMail 
> itself, PMMail is capable of forwarding an email containing a vbscript that 
> could wreak havoc on an unprotected Outlook Express system.

> I use AVG pro. It's email protection doesn't fire off a warning as soon as 
> a mail with an infected attachment is received, but it does warn every time 
> I click on that message (i.e. at the preview state).

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