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Using proper e-mail etiquette can help prevent virus infectionsDid you know that using proper e-mail etiquette can help you, and others, prevent an e-mailed virus from infecting your computer? E-mail viruses gather e-mail addresses from infected machines and then send messages to these addresses. The virus may also use an e-mail address — machine owner’s address or friends’ and colleagues’ addresses — harvested from an address book of an infected computer to send messages to other addresses. This part of the virus is fairly sophisticated compared to the actual e-mail note many viruses create. Most subject lines of virus-generated e-mails are very generic and some virus-generated e-mails don’t even have any text in the body. If there is text, it is usually minimal and will not be specific to either the sender or recipient. Examples include “here is the document.” or “did you ask me for that?”. Sometimes the text won’t make sense, for example, “did you know from this document?”. If you follow proper e-mail etiquette for creating your messages and encourage others to follow these guidelines, you will know what is a real e-mail message from friends and colleagues versus a virus-generated e-mail message. 1. Write a clear descriptive subject. A lot of the virus-generated e-mail notes try to look like they are from friends or colleagues, but they use simple subjects, like “Re: hi” or “important.” Also, if there is no subject, most people will delete the message without looking at it. 2. Include a salutation and closing. The salutation can be “Dear Jane,” or just use the person’s first name “Tom,”. Including a closing, like “Thanks, John”. This guideline has always existed to encourage politeness, but now it is even more necessary because it also helps people know that you sent the note — it’s not a virus-created note. 3. Only send an attachment to those who need it and when they are expecting to receive one. Remember, you can make a file available via a Web page or FTP and use the e-mail note to tell people about the file, its content, and location. 4. When you send an attachment, tell the person why you are sending it and what the file is. For example, “Attached is the article for this month’s newsletter. It is a Word/WordPerfect file.” or “Picture of our new granddaughter is attached.” If you follow these guidelines and look for them to be followed in messages you receive, you will know when you have received a real e-mail message from family, friend, or work colleague. So, when an e-mail note seems suspicious — don’t click on any link or open any attachment as that will most likely infect your machine. For more e-mail etiquette guidelines, please see "Reduce E-mail Overload," CIT Information, March/April 2003. |
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