Computer Viruses

The threat of inconvenience caused by the introduction of virusesis on the rise at MCC. Each virus carries it's own unique set of symptoms ranging from a simple annoyance to loss of important data. Please take advantage of the links above and facts below to learn more about how a virus attack may affect you.

Interesting Facts:

• Bubbleboy and KakWorm are two aggressive viruses to date that are activated when the e-mail is displayed (yes the e-mail). Other viruses are sent within the e-mail attachments and activated when you launch (double-click) on the attachment to open it, or when you launch it after saving it to your hard drive or floppy. Viruses are also disseminated by infected files on floppies and other removable disks.
• In some cases the virus may prevent the infected computer from connecting to anti-virus websites like McAfee.com and Symantec.com.
• You may see two e-mails in a row from the same person. One of them will be the legitimate e-mail, the other was sent by the viral program and includes a copy of the virus. This is a symptom of the more recent viruses.
• You should NOT assume that e-mail and attachments are virus free if received from people you know. Most viruses will be sent to you from people you know. If someone's computer is infected and they use Microsoft Outlook as their e-mail program, the virus software will send out e-mail containing a copy of the virus to addressees in your addressbook, without their knowledge of it being sent!
• Recent viruses are automatically sent by e-mail by taking advantage of a weak spot within Microsoft's security system found in Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express. The viral program takes advantage of this weakness to automatically send out e-mail without the user's knowledge with an attachment containing a copy of the virus to everyone in the address book. Netscape Messenger and Eudora users may be infected when they launch the viral program upon receipt. They can also pass the virus to others by forwarding the viral e-mail to someone else.

If you must use Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express:1. Install the security patches for Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express from the Microsoft web site: Security Patches and Fixes2. Tighten your security settings in Outlook and Outlook Express: From within Internet Explorer, select the following menu items:
Tools | Internet Options | Security | Restricted Sites | Custom Level In the Custom Level dialog box, disable all settings related to ActiveX and Java (in fact, I would disable everything, set Software Channel Permissions to High Safety, and under User Authentication set it to prompt for username and password. Note: Just setting the restrictions to High will not work. You must choose Custom Level and scroll through the list making the necessary changes. If you are unable to follow this step, it may be a good idea to ask an experienced friend for assistance. 3.After making the above modifications to Internet Explorer, open Outlook Express (if not already open) and add it to the Restricted Zone. Do this by choosing Tools | Options | Security and selecting Restricted Zone.

4.Finally, regardless of the message received – do not allow scripts to run from within e-mail. If you believe there is a legitimate purpose for the scripts (there’s not), reply to the sender and explain that you do not accept scripting in e-mail and ask that they resend the message in plain text only. If they have something legitimate to say, they will be happy to oblige your request.