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To better enable our customers to use and enjoy the Internet, Green Apple has implemented limited virus filtering on our mail servers. The filtering is designed to identify known infection patterns of viruses and alert the email sender of a possible infection.
The filtering is meant as a first level of defense against viruses which are in the wild and carry an identifiable fingerprint, such as this month's Bugbear virus, not a bulwark. Computer owners are responsible for properly protecting their computer. We urge all users to learn and practice good email habits. Here are some guidelines:
1. Don't open email attachments unless you are expecting them.
Email is the most common means used for spreading viruses. Most viruses have to be opened/executed to run. Viruses of this type spread in email as attachments. Often a virus attachment is sent unwittingly by someone you know. If you weren't expecting an attachment, don't open it.
2. Don't use the Preview Pane.
The Preview Pane in most email programs is the section which displays the contents of an email as you scroll through your message list. The Preview Pane does a full read of an email; so a viruses which is capable of infecting merely by reading has an opportunity to infect your machine. A safer way to read email is with the Preview Pane off and explicitly choosing the email to read by double clicking on it from the message list, which will open the email in a separate window. In Outlook Express, perhaps the most popular email program, to disable the Preview Pane, select View >> Layout >> remove the checkmark from 'Show preview pane' (applies to version 6 of Outlook Express).
3. Install and use a good virus detecting application and keep it up-to-date.
Norton (Symantec) and McAfee manufacture the most popular anti-virus software. Dr Solomon runs behind these two, but manufactures good anti-virus software as well. Buy a copy of anti-virus software from one of these companies (all three have shareware versions you can download and test drive). Understand, install, and use it. Check with the manufacturers' website periodically. Keep your program up-to-date by downloading the latest anti-virus datasets (.dat files) and engines from the manufacturers. You can expect to have to purchase a new copy of software every couple of years as viruses will emerge which are outside the scope of protection aging anti-virus software can provide.
Along with keeping virus software up-to-date by downloading the latest datasets and engines, keep the recovery diskettes up-to-date. Recovery diskettes are bootable diskettes used to recover from a virus infection when a scan from Windows is unable to repair an infection. All virus manufactures recommend that you create recovery diskettes and keep them current. Get into a routine of building recovery diskettes.
4. Keep backups of all your important files.
Should you get a catastrophic hit from a virus which your anti-virus software cannot recover from (a combination which is, fortunately, pretty rare), be ready to recover afresh. Make it a practice to periodically identify and backup your key files (such as Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, important emails, Quickbook backups). Build a backup rotation schedule so that you have at least two sets of backups you could use to recover with, such as a weekly backup set and a monthly backup set. Having a good backup routine is an important part of an anti-virus regime (It is an even more important part of the regime you use to enable recovery from a catastrophic hardware failure!)
5. Use common sense.
This is a catch all. As you should take a cautious approach handling email attachments, be equally cautious with files you get through other means such as newsgroups, ftp, instant messaging and diskettes. Don't install anti-virus software and then disable it. All recent virus detecting software can be scheduled to do a complete hard drive scan at night. Schedule your machine for this, but make it a point to run a complete hard drive scan periodically yourself to see if the software is performing properly.
For additional information, please see Green Apple's PC Sentry website
http://www.greenapple.com/support/security/pc-sentry
If any questions about computer viruses, please contact us.
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