internet

A recent security firm survey discovered that many virus infections were caused by the opening of email attachments from unknown people which were, in fact, quite clearly dangerous and unwise to open.  And, more to the point, the fact that this could lead to a virus infection was well known in advance.

But, surely, if you do something as reckless and bizarre as this then you must expect security problems?  Quite so, say those affected, but it seems to be a trait of human nature that we disregard security and feel compelled to open tasty looking email attachments that could contain a virus - even when we know it could be dangerous to do so and a breach of security.

And it isn't just a macho 'living dangerously' trait either.  It's more a type of curiosity that temporarily overrides our natural good sense and makes us hide the danger from ourselves and perform acts that, even we would say, were dangerous to do.

Spammers, of course, know us and our security lapses better than we know ourselves and use this to their advantage.  They send out vast numbers of emails each laden with a virus but disguised as tempting sounding  attachments knowing that many amongst us will be unable to prevent ourselves clicking on the alluring title.  So, what can we do to help combat this apparently dangerous trait in our nature?

If this truly is an action that we can't prevent ourselves taking then, in truth, there is very little that can be done other than to point out the security problem and urge people to be more careful.  But, since this may not be enough, perhaps an alternative strategy is called for.

Our strategy for dealing with dangerous emails
Try creating a new folder in your email program called 'Dangerous Attachments' or similar.  Now, as you go through your emails, put in the folder all the emails that are clearly not work emails and which may contain viruses.  Do this, of course, without opening them and, if it helps, tell yourself that it is just temporary storage for suspect emails. 

Then, at the end of a day (or week), ask someone else to look through the emails and delete those that they think are a security risk and open and deal with any others.

Alternatively, and this is the interesting part, see if you still feel compelled to open them after they are a few days old?  If not and you can just delete them yourself without a problem (or even if you can't) be sure to tell us below since this is a subject that we are currently looking into and your help would be appreciated.
 

Tags: internet, security, trojan, virus