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> Spam Protection Guide - 05
Spam Protection Guide - 05
EMAIL - Text Email
Deleting unwelcome email at the server before you download
it to your computer rewards you with multiple advantages.
The first, obvious advantage is that there may have been
an attachment containing a virus traveling with that email. The virus can't affect
the mail server, which only transports the email, it can only affect an end user
with a computer system that allows the virus on board. The attachment also can't
affect a text-only program, and it can't affect you until you download it.
So even if you're not sure from the sender and subject
whether the email is a welcome one or not, if you read the body of the message
you can get a better idea. Especially with an attachment involved, you can always
email a friend for advice before you act on it. Or you can be especially careful
when you do download it to quarantine it unopened in a folder until you can get
advice.
If in doubt about someone's legitimately sending you an
attachment, you can email or call them to find out if they really did, or if a
virus has harvested their address book. A virus can spoof a sender but it's rare
that the body of the email will contain an authentic-reading message as if it
came from your friend.
As we all get more savvy with this, we all have to become
more elaborate with the way we send email to our friends and colleagues. If we
need to send or receive an executable as an attachment, it should be sent as a
zip file, and we should send a prior email to say that it's following. We should
assume ISPs are filtering for spam, and anti-virus software is destroying incoming
attachments that seem dubious. We should not send attachments to friends without
at least saying something believable in the the body of the email, or else we
have no complaint when they delete it unread.
Sender and subject are two things we should pay great attention
to in our outgoing emails, as a courtesy to all of our contacts, who are equally
concerned to prevent junk and danger from entering their computers. Reading email
on the server in text gives us the time to judge what we're dealing with.
It doesn't take an attachment to deliver a virus. An email
program that reads HTML code (the code that makes all web pages) can trigger connections
with remote servers, and if your computer's security is already compromised you're
about to take a beating.
Even with a clean computer, an HTML email containing javascript
has the ability to perform actions on your computer.
The bottom line is if you value your safety
don't ever download new email into an HTML-rendering email program without first
having reviewed it in text only.
Current virus protection will usually stop viruses from
any source, including email, but it may not if your computer is already infected
from an earlier email or a probe that found your unprotected computer and installed
a sleeper in the background. In these cases, even going online to update the anti-virus
software allows the onboard virus to act.
Anti-virus software won't prevent you from receiving spam.
All the spam filters in the world aren't going to stop all of the spam, nor can
it protect your privacy. But a text-only email program will make you invisible
to spammers.
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