Forum Home
Press F1
 
Thread ID: 33746 2003-05-24 08:18:00 Anti-virus confusion Lucy (182) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
147103 2003-05-24 23:28:00 People forget that those who write viri generally release them into the wild without first sending a copy to the anti-virus people.

Because of this oversight, there is often a delay between a virus getting out there, and the antivirus peoples being able to update the virus definitions available.

For this reason i would recomend treating ANY unexpected attachment with caution.

.Clueless
Clueless (181)
147104 2003-05-25 00:51:00 Yes that virus was stopped BEFORE it hit my inbox. This is using NAV2003 with the latest defs that will have that virus in its list. I had to tell it no to fixing, quarantining and deletion before I could even get it in to my inbox. Then I couldn't save it to the desktop to have a look at until I disabled the auto-protect. -=JM=- (16)
147105 2003-05-25 22:03:00 Thanks for all your replies. Both my anti-viruses are updated every day. The thing is, Xtra didn't seem to pick them up either which is a bit of a worry! I do remember when they first started this anti-virus filter, and I was sent a message from myself (shame), they sent me an e-mail, to tell me that it contained a virus. But nothing the last three times. Lucy (182)
147106 2003-05-25 22:56:00 Lucy

Xtra strips the virus from your email but you won't necessarily know it is gone unless it was a particularly obvious attachment . If you are assuming receipt of a known virus solely from the subject line, e . g . the recent faux "Microsoft" screensaver messages, then that could explain your lack of alerts and your possibly erroneous assumption that Xtra didn't pick them up . Xtra still forwards the message, but by the time you received it the virus is gone .

IMHO you can take some reassurance from the combined power of the Xtra virus detector and your own AV program and rely on them both to protect you against most nasties .

The greatest threats will always be downloading of infected software and the inadvertent opening or previewing of infected emails . You retain full control over all three .

Cheers

Billy 8-{)
Billy T (70)
147107 2003-05-27 02:41:00 Ok thanks for that Billy ;) Lucy (182)
147108 2003-05-27 05:15:00 The usual advice is to always save all attachments to your hard drive and then scan them with an anti-virus before opening them.


Would'nt saving them to your hard drive be dangerous ?
I would save them to a floppy. Better still I just don't tolerate unknown attachments. I wipe them in Mailwasher before they even get near me.
aaarrrrgh!!!! a pox on the little blighters. Cheers .
heaton (3697)
147109 2003-05-27 05:23:00 Saving them is harmless running them is how they get to do damamge, untill executed they are nothing but a bunch of harmless zeros and ones...

.Chris
Chris (3346)
1 2