How can I protect myself from these new virus/worm programs?

How can I protect myself from the current outbreak of worm/trojan/virus programs?

This question was answered on November 14, 2000. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

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This is a follow-up to this past Saturday's radio show that alerted you to several known virus outbreaks The following are a few tips that can help you avoid contracting these nasty criters:

- As always, do not open any file attachements to an e-mail message, even if you trust the sender Most of the current worm/trojan programs send themselves automatically, so the most likely person to send you the worm is a trusted friend If you recieve a file attachment, reply to the sender and as the nature of the attachment Encourage your friends to limit the number of attachments that they send to you.

- Some new virus/worm strains are taking advantage of the "preview pane" in Outlook and Outlook Express To disable the preview pane in Outlook, click on the View menu then on Preview Pane In Outlook Express, click on the View menu then on Layout and remove the checkmark in front of Show Preview pane.

- Windows Scripting Host is used by many of these new virus programs and is not needed by most users You can disable the ability for these scripts to run by disabling the Host To do this, click on Start/Settings/Control Panel then double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon Click on the Windows Setup tab, then double-click on Accessories and remove the check mark in front of the Windows Scripting Host entry.

- If you are using either of the Microsoft Outlook e-mail programs, be sure to update them with the security patches that are available at the Microsoft website.

To check for the latest downloads for you particular program, go to:

<a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.asp"><font color="#003399">>http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.asp</b></font></a>

About the author

Posted by Ken Colburn of Data Doctors on November 14, 2000

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