good reason to disable popups.
On Dec 8, 2010, at 11:12 AM, Sun Sounds of Arizona wrote:
Assuming up to date virus protection software, and some common sense, we
have little to fear from conventional email distributed viruses these days.
Now that said, there is a virus which I've seen catch several people, and is
very tricky. It infects as a pop-up when you have your browser running. It
says that your virus protection is out of date and needs to be updated and
invites you to click to do the update. This easily fools a lot of people.
Unfortunately, it is also the most virulent virus I've ever seen. It slowly
makes your computer pretty much unusable, and eradicating it using
conventional means is nearly impossible. If not caught early, it requires a
complete wipe of the hard drive and reformat to get rid of. So, beware of
this one. Remember, your own virus software will not pop up in your browser
with this kind of warning. If you click, your own virus software will also
not prevent this viruses installation.
Bill
-----Original Message-----
From: Visually Impaired Computer Users' Group List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of David Poehlman
Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2010 8:05 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VICUG-L] Viruses and such, warnings, etc.
how do you know that open a virus warning won't infect your computer.
I think most folk know how to protect their computers. when a virus does
crop up, it is usually posted reliably and reliably. Your best protection
beyond the usual is to sign up for an announcement which puts out legitimate
reports. I get mine through news feeds so I don't know any list addresses.
On Dec 8, 2010, at 7:31 AM, Stan Berman wrote:
While warnings that are not valid are a distraction, and experienced users
of electronic systems should know the risks of opening attachments, visiting
links for sites with which one has no previous experience, and so on, I
prefer to have the warnings than not.
No antivirus or antispyware program can protect against any and all
threats.
Not all malicious stuff gets into your computer by opening an e-mail
attachment, or visiting a site you open. There are e-mail messages that
load content from a company web site rather than contain the full content
within its wrapper. So how do you know what risks you face before opening
that message?
How do you know that opening a web page on a trusted site does not pose a
threat? Sites of substantial organizations have been hacked. Redirects can
take you anywhere.
Clearly there are experiences of individuals and organizations that suggest
that there are challenges of increasing sophistication that need to be
addressed. Two financial institutions I know of have a log on sequence that
generates an image and a separate phrase of the user's selection to validate
that the site being visited is actually the intended site. Now why would
that be necessary if there were not a problem?
No one of us nor the products we use provide 100% protection against
malicious intent, and I have no interest in losing access to 25 years
ofpersonal and professional information and work or spending huge amounts of
time and/or money to regain access.
Stan
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