Often you will get mass mailings offering you thousands of dollars just to sit at home and surf the Internet, a chance to "make millions in your spare time." "THIS WORKS!" it SHOUTS!

And sometimes you will just get strange mail (apparently from a "real" person -- as opposed to a SPAM-ming ro-BOT). "Strange" could relate to the content of the message or the identity of the sender.

General Do Nots:

1. Do not reply. Do not reply, even if the mail suggests that you can be removed from the maillist by notifying them that you don't want to receive any more mail from them. Do not reply to anonymous unsolicited messages, or other harassing or offensive mail. By responding, you only confirm that you are a person with an active e-mail address who can be plagued with constant unwanted e-mail solicitations.

2. Do not delete. If the mail is offensive, threatening, or of questionable taste -- do not delete the message. E-Mail detectives can discover information "hidden" in the headers of messages that can reveal all of the servers and machines that had any contact with the message. Do not delete this type of message. The sender is the violator. You are NOT IN VIOLATION by keeping the message [More on this later.].

1. Do ignore and delete any annoying, bothersome, SPAM-mail that approximates the kind of junk mail you might receive in US Postal mail at home. There is of yet no legislation that will allow you to notify a SPAMmer to cease and desist in the way that you can stop unwanted telephone solicitations.

2. Do be judicious about where you leave your e-mail address. Ever notice how much your postal junk mail increases after you register for a "Free Car?" E-mail SPAM sometimes uses web registrations the same way. Do sign up for a free e-mail account from Hotmail, Mail, EMail, MSN, etc., and use that address for web give-aways, contests, etc. See if the SPAM doesn't get sent there instead of to mccsc.edu.

3. Do save any harrassing, threatening, or pornographic e-mail. Save it to a new folder called "Threats" (or something). Do notify your building administration (if this is occurring on MCCSC resources) that you have received such messages and have saved them. If you believe the messages to be dangerous,

   do immediately notify law enforcement. Follow their instructions concerning the message(s). These instructions usually involve "showing all header information." See instructions in your mail program.

4. Do reply to any mail which appears to offer a legitimate communications need. This is a judgement call on your part. 90% of SPAM should be ignored and deleted. If the message contains open, traceable information -- such as a WWW address, a mailing address and telephone number, check into the legitimacy of the message. Respond accordingly.

5. Do notify any "innocent" but bothersome senders, politely, that you have no idea who she/he is, request that he/she immediately stop communicating with you, that she/he even not reply to the request, that you have not appreciated his/her previous messages containing off color and tasteless remarks, and inform him that you will notify her/his e-mail provider if he/she continues to communicate with you. The bad news is that this person probably doesn't understand that his contact with you is not welcome.

6. Do, if bothersome e-mail continues, notify the Internet Service Provider or e-mail provider by forwarding the previous message. The ISP or e-mail provider is that part after the @ sign in the e-mail address:
   • czager@hotmail.com
     
   • czager@indiana.edu
     
   • czager@bloomington.in.us, for example.
     
   Forward (not copy) the message to
   • abuse@hotmail.com
     
   • abuse@indiana.edu
     
   • abuse@bloomington.in.us, for example.
     
   "Set show all headers," and copy the message to the sender (and to your building administrator, if this is on MCCSC resources).

E-Mail Viruses and Internet Hoaxes & Myths

• Symantec
  Norton
  A-B-C List
  
• C-NET
  
• McAfee
  
• Office Macros
  
• Trend Micro
  
• Virus Index
  
• VirusList
  
• Yahoo
  

• Symantec
  Norton
  
• US DoE Hoaxes
  
• Virus Myths
  
• Y2K Date Hoax
  

Danger to life is quite different than danger to a home computer. But danger to a network of computers or to the international world wide web of computers and servers could be damaging to the lives and livlihood of millions -- not to mention the potential lock-up of emergency and defense systems.

Unfortunately, many of the e-mail warnings serve to do more damage to those systems than the threats and viruses that they signal. For example, "Send this message to everyone that you know," is a pyramid scheme designed to clog up as much available bandwidth as possible. Just delete those messages and move on. Don't reply to them, or, if it is from a friend, make sure the reply only goes to the sender, not the whole list.

One must develop a sense of perspective. Actual terror activities are more likely to be communicated by official Emergency Management or Homeland Security sources through media other than the Internet. And actual virus warnings are more likely to come from your network administrator or from your anti-virus software.

• Symantec / Norton Anti-Virus Software
  -- Anti-Virus Research Center
  http://www.symantec.com/avcenter
     [alternate URL
  http://www.norton.com/avcenter]
  A-B-C Virus List
  http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/vinfodb.html
  
• C-NET http://www.cnet.com/software/
  
• McAfee http://vil.nai.com/VIL/newly-discovered-viruses.asp
  
• Microsoft Office Macros Virus Information http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/Articles/antivirus.htm
  
• Trend Micro http://www.antivirus.com/vinfo/
  
• Virus Bulletin: Info Index http://www.virusbtn.com/VirusInformation/
  
• VirusList http://www.viruslist.com/eng/default.asp
  
• Yahoo http://dailynews.yahoo.com/fc/Tech/Computer_Viruses
  

• http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html
     [alternate URL - http://www.norton.com/avcenter/hoax.html]
  
• Rob Rosenberger's Computer Virus Myths
  
• US Department of Energy Internet Hoaxes!
  
• Microsoft's Y2K Date Hoax http://www.microsoft.com/y2k/hoax/y2khoax.htm
  

Generally, a hoax/myth ...

1. References a news release "yesterday" or "this morning" with no comparison date;
   
2. Grabs "authority" by using a known technology name, usually large enough that if you try to track the news back to a website, YOU feel inadequate if you don't find any reference to the information (common ones are IBM, AOL, Microsoft);
   
3. Assigns the virus to e-mail with no explanation that e-mail, itself, cannot be infected -- only attachments and macros -- thereby lumping all e-mail clients into the GUI (POP3 and IMAP) category;
   
4. Begs you to spread the information to EVERYONE you know and even people you don't know -- THIS IS ACTUALLY THE "VIRUS," sometimes called an "e bomb," or e-mail "bomb," meaning its intent is to clog up the system with . . .;
   
5. . . . warnings of dire consequences; and
   
6. Seems to use the same language and same format (only the names have been changed to protect the innocent) as the last warning you received.
   

1. Practice SAFE E-MAILING:
   
   1. If you use a POP3/IMAP GUI client, do not set it to open attachments automatically -- this can be configured in the Options, Tools/Options, Preferences choices -- rather, save and virus scan ALL attachments, even those you get from your closest friends and relatives;
      and
      
   2. if you use a file "unzip" utility, do not set it to automatically open "zipped" [*.zip] files or documents -- always set these utilities to "ask" first.
      
   3. If you use a UNIX/Linux text client like Mail or Pine, save all attachments and scan them after you FTP to your local machine and BEFORE you open or execute.
      
   4. MS Office applications (Word, Excel, etc.), are designed to protect you from macro viruses including the "Melissa" and "Papa" viruses and any variants, provided the macro virus protection in these applications is turned on (which is the default setting). With the macro virus protection turned on, every time you open a document that contains macros, a dialog box appears and asks you to choose whether to enable or disable included macros.
      
      You should always disable macros when you are not certain of their purpose or functionality. By choosing to disable the macros, you will prevent any macro viruses from running, preventing infection by the virus. The virus is only activated if you open the attached document and choose to enable the macros or if your macro virus protection settings have been previously turned off and you open the attachment.

      It should be noted that even if the message containing the virus is not opened, it could still infect others if it is forwarded. To minimize risk and to prevent spreading a virus, if your virus scan reveals a virus, you should delete it without opening the attachment, and, if you have FTP'ed the file, you should return to Pine and delete the original message.

      How do I ensure the Office macro virus protection is turned on?

      In Word 97 and Excel 97 ...

      On the Tools menu, select Options.
      On the General tab, Macro Virus Protection
      should be checked or selected.

      In Word 2000 and Excel 2000 ...

      On the Tools menu, select Macro and then choose Security.
      Select the level of security you want. High security will allow only macros that have been signed to open. Unsigned macros will be automatically disabled. Medium security always brings up the macro dialog protection box that allows you to disable macros if you are unsure of the macros.

      IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are not able to follow the steps above because you cannot find the menu items, you may already be infected. If so, run anti-virus software containing the latest update, and scan your system often.

      MCCSC NT Workstations automatically scan for viruses on logon, and scan once again during the day, using Symantec -- Norton Anti-Virus software. To manually check your workstation hard drive and/or a floppy disk, select Start / Programs / Norton Anti-Virus / Norton Anti-Virus and choose the options All floppy drives to check a disk and/or All hard drives and follow the instructions.

      If you are not able to run anti-virus software, it will be necessary to delete or rename your normal.dot file. This is Word's global template that will automatically be recreated once Word is launched. [On MCCSC NT Workstations, report the problem to your coordinator as this file may not be accessible to all users.] After this is done, repeat the steps in the Macro instructions above.

2. If you get a notice about a virus, a real one will have a URL for a site where you can check for authenticity BEFORE you mail the warning to your people. You can also check for information at one of these locations.:
   
   • Symantec -- Norton Anti-Virus Software
     - Anti-Virus Research Center
     - Virus Hoaxes
     
   • Microsoft Office Virus Information
     Microsoft Y2K Date Hoax
     
   • Rob Rosenberger's
     Computer Virus Myths
     
   • US Department of Energy:
     Internet Hoaxes!
     
   • Virus Bulletin: Info Index
     

Q's, A's and E-Mail Comments