Please note that this is my personal advice: it does not express the views or opinions of the club.
Email safety is best divided into three categories.
Outlook (the email program provided by default on most computers) is the main target for almost all of the viruses in circulation. Outlook users are divided into two categories - those who have sent viruses to everyone they know - and those who have sent viruses to everyone they know AND lots of people they don't. Seriously, outlook has several features that help virus writers:
OK, so what do I recommend? A lot of people use on-line mail, which you can check with your web browser - Hotmail accounts and similar. They work OK, but don't have the nice features of a real email program. I use Mozilla Thunderbird (Why you should use Thunderbird). It is completely free, has no adverts or spyware, and has some very useful features (see spam filtering later). Highly recommended, it works with all ISPs and email accounts and is very safe and reliable.
Viruses are a well-publicised threat and frequently make the news. They have changed from the annoying or damaging kind (the ones that used to format your hard drive, or delete your files, although they can still do this) and it is now suspected that they are written and used by spam merchants to turn your machine into a spam machine that sends hundreds or thousands of spam mails, before your account gets blocked by your ISP.
There are two main ways to protect yourself against viruses:
There are several anti-virus programs on the market: I recommend Norton Internet Security as a good general-purpose virus protection. For those on a tight budget, try one of the free tools Avast! (registration required within 60 days of installation), AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition (registration required before installation), or AntiVir (no registration required) (doesn’t have proper email scanning facility).
Note that a virus scanner with out of date virus definitions is virtually useless. Keep them up to date.
The majority of viruses are not let in by some security hole, but are actually run by users themselves, sometimes unknowingly. NEVER EVER click on an e-mail attachment that you are not expecting or are not 100% sure what it is. It is the equivalent of taking sweets from strangers - it might be fine, but it might also be made from ground glass or you may just wake up the next morning with a splitting headache and empty pockets.
NEVER EVER click on an e-mail attachment that you are not expecting. I know I've just said that, but it should be the one rule you DO NOT BREAK. If you really want to open the attachment, a quick phone call or email can easily confirm whether the attachment is genuine or not: it is far easier to wait five minutes for a reply than to spend hours sorting out the mess a virus can cause.
If you need any incentive, consider that many viruses will attach a random file from your own hard drive as cover, and then send a message all of the following people:
So, consider picking the most embarrassing/important/private file on your hard drive and mailing it to all of the above people. How about sending a bunch of strangers your personal letters? What do you think your work colleagues would do with a copy of your home accounts, including your salary and personal loan details? or maybe sending 'private' photos of yourself to your mum and dad? A virus can do any of the above and more, so if you don't want one, DON'T open any attachments you aren't expecting. A 'cool' screensaver or nude photos of Brittney Spears is just not worth the effort it is to apologise to hundreds of people. Note also that some viruses 'spoof' the sending email address, so if you receive a virus it may not have been sent by the user displayed in the 'from' field.
A good source of information on viruses and what they do is http://securityresponse.symantec.com/. They provide an on-line database of known viruses and technical information on what they do and how they work. If you receive an email 'warning' you about a virus (e.g. the 'good times' virus) you can quickly check up with them to see if the warning is genuine or just another chain letter (see spam chain letters below).
Spam is one of the biggest problems on the internet. A good detailed description of spam is given on Randy Cassingham's site. In brief, spam is sent because 0.01% of people actually read it and send off the money for some viagra tablets/get-rich-quick scheme/special offer/increasing 'size' machine/porn site passwords. So, if you're one of those people, STOP IT. Clicking on and reading (and especially giving money to) any of these spam emails improves this 0.01% figure - which means they send even more spam! The only way to remove spam is for every single person to never read or reply to any spam you receive - even if the offer looks absolutely fantastic! (it is very rarely anything other than a scam).
Be careful to distinguish between genuine spam (unsolicited commercial email) and the many newsletters/product offers sent out by companies you have done business with, or have given your email address to. These companies will generally send you 'spam' by default, but often have an unsubscribe link or method on the bottom of their emails - which you should use. It is quite surprising how many companies have legitimately obtained your email address (it's on practically every form you fill in now) and almost all of them will honour your request to unsubscribe.
A special form of spam you need to spot is the chain letter. This takes several forms, but often the form of a heartbreaking story, 'virus' warning, or simple threatening letter. All of them follow the same format - they all end asking you to forward the letter to as many people as possible. This should immediately ring alarm bells - you should never forward mail just because you are told to. Just delete them, and forget about them. There is no child with cancer collecting get well cards, there is no special prize if you forward the mail to 20 other people, your dog will not die if you don't forward the mail - it's just all rubbish. See www.nonprofit.net/hoax/ for more details.
One of the best reasons for using Mozilla Thunderbird, in my opinion, is the spam filtering system. Thunderbird has a Bayesian (learning) filtering system. Once you turn it on, you mark your spam mail by clicking on it and marking it a junk, and the system learns which mail you don't want, and can deliver it to a separate junk folder or immediately delete it. It gets smarter the more times you correct it, and mine is pretty good now (I get approx 40 spam mails per day, and it only lets through 2 or 3). Highly recommended.
For practically any non-trivial piece of software, it will have bugs or problems in it. The question is simply when they are found and what happens then. Many manufacturers place updates or patches for their software on the 'support' sections of their website. It is usually worth downloading these patches and installing them at regular intervals. Modern versions of windows attempt to download and install patches for itself automatically, and it is definitely worth the effort for any program you use regularly. Even many games will have patches which fix problems and improve performance.
If you're on a broadband connection, this is probably not a problem - it only takes a few minutes to download and install, and an occasional check takes almost no time at all. If you are on dial-up, however, it is more of an issue and you will have to prioritise. Always install operating system patches (windows) first. After that, your web browser and email patches or new releases: and after that anything you use regularly. Everything else can probably wait until you notice a problem.
As well as the Thunderbird email client above, the Mozilla organisation also produce a fantastic web browser (a replacement for Internet Explorer). I cannot recommend Mozilla Firefox enough: it is quite simply the best webbrowser around: my second choice would be Opera with IE last. Check out this article Why You Should Switch to Firefox. It is my number one browser and it is worth getting for the popup blocking alone. I still keep IE around: it's a pain to remove IE from your system, and there is the odd site that only works under Internet Explorer, for example www.argos.com. Mozilla also produce a combined internet browser, email and news reader, chat client, HTML editor suite called Mozilla that is also excellent if you want everything in one program.
It's a good idea to keep your identity quiet when using the internet: only give out your email address, name or real address to anyone who really needs to know it. I suggest picking a single online 'username' and using that name on the internet: there are many places that need them (discussion boards, website logins) and it's easier to use the same username for them all. Don't use your real names (e.g. 'JohnSmith'), pick something you can remember and spell, and 'google' it first to see if anyone else is using it. Stringing short words together works well (e.g. 'CoolAikidoDude' or 'ShomenateMan').
Keep a cool head and a sense of perspective. Forums can very quickly degenerate into slanging matches ('flaming') and it's easy to get personally offended. Don't! Most users don't re-read their posts or think before they type and you can easily get into an argument without trying. Give others the benefit of the doubt and re-read your own posts or emails before you press send. Every time you do, you will edit it slightly or at least correct a spelling mistake - and sometimes you have just typed a load of nonsense. It's much easier to press delete than to apologise.
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