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Friday humour: the guy the virus writers count on

Flash to a conversation overheard in a checkout line: when one person asks another why they hadn’t responded to an email, the resopnse comes: “there was an attachment in your last email, and I heard that attachments could be bad… so I didn’t open it.”


That reminded me of a past cartoon…



You really do have to be careful these days: I regularly receive emails with small .zip or .jpg attachments that no doubt hold all sorts of nasty goodies. Don’t open attachments unless you really know (and can confirm!) who they came from and what the attachments are.


As Stephen Sinofsky said in this discussion on the impact of “I Love You” virus that infected computers worldwide in 2000…



“Always make sure you have anti-virus software running and that it is up to date. Ensure you have the latest product updates… You should also practice safe computing practices, such as being very careful when opening email attachments.”


More info:



(BTW, the cartoon is by the talented Cam Cardow of The Ottawa Citizen.)


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3 replies on “Friday humour: the guy the virus writers count on”

Yea you could do all the virus stuff or you could just get a mac and not have to worry about it anymore 😀

I am not bashing windows in any way however it is known fact that it is more prone to virii and spyware than Mac or a Linux distrobution.

I moved to mac after 12 years of putting up with virii and spyware.

Appreciate the opinion. If you own a computer – PC or Mac (and we have both at home) – you should run AV software, have a firewall on your internet connection and practice “safe computing.”

But we have to be careful to reach broad-based conclusions. It’s better to anticipate an attack and be prepared and protected rather than hope that you won’t be the victim of an attack.

As USA Today reported earlier this year, “Windows-based PCs have felt the brunt of attacks for years because those machines command more than 95% of the worldwide market. Macs mostly have escaped the attention of hackers. Until now.”

“Unless they consider themselves very savvy, Mac users should run anti-virus software just like Windows users,” says Larry Seltzer, security center editor at news site eWeek.com. “Mac users need to start developing a sense of cynicism about content that comes unsolicited, even if it appears to come from a user they know.”

See more in the article on USA Today at http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2006-02-23-mac-security_x.htm. And of interest is Larry Seltzer’s article, “What Will Apple Do When the Malware Comes?” at

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1928716,00.asp

As our COO Kevin Turner says, (paraphrased here): don’t be a victim… be a participant in your own rescue.

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