Don’t let a virus attach to your PC

Email attachments are as dangerous as Internet downloads. Email is one of the primary propagation routes for viruses and Trojans today. It doesn’t matter if the email appears to come from somebody you know, it still can be infected. Chances are that the sender’s computer might have already been struck by a worm that sends viruses to all the contacts found in a victim’s address book.

Some email clients prevent opening of exe-type attachments, but still are prone to other forms of malware distributions such as screensavers (*.scr), archived celebrity pictures (*.zip), security updates (*.bat) and other forms of social engineering attacks.

The rule with treating attachments is simple: open the file if you expect it from someone you know, discard potentially unsafe attachments from unknown senders, and scan all attachments you are about to open with an updated antivirus, or a bunch of them. Remember, all files are potentially malicious, even an innocuous Word .doc file might be riddled with a macro virus capable of inflicting serious damage to your data.