About virus warnings and attachments

One of the main ways that computer viruses are spread is through "ATTACHMENTS" sent along with regular e-mail messages. There have been serious problems on other e-mail lists as a result of this, resulting in the serious disruption of many computers that belong to list members.  While some people know about this, many people are not aware of this, which is why I'm mentioning it again. Some people on WSN routinely use attachments because they definitely are very convenient and they do preserve the formating and "look" of the original document; but of course it is the formatting instructions that often contain the virus.

 

I quickly delete any message that comes to me with an attachment, unless I know that a friend is sending me a manuscript. I would suggest that people try to avoid sending attachments, including attachments that warn about viruses. It is more work to copy the text from one message and "paste" it into a new message, but it is safer and reassuring.

 

Thanks,

 

Alan Spector