Privacy, Security & Virus Information

E-mail attachments are still something to be wary off

Who can remember the early days of the internet, when getting an e-mail was such a big deal, and one with an attachment was something that you had to take a glass of water before opening it. After a while e-mails and attachments became fairly commonplace, and businesses and individuals could enjoy the wonder of receiving blocks of information from every corner of the World in a miniscule fraction of what it was taking from that nasty and archaic snail mail.

Then it seemed like in the space of a few days the bubble seemed to burst. Rumours spread throughout the internet that there were these computer based criminals known as hackers that were using e-mails to infiltrate computers with something really nasty known as computer viruses. People who were spending a lot of their time surfing the web, as well as sending and receiving e-mails were dumbstruck. "Why would anyone want do such a thing " they asked. And it soon transpired that these hackers were simply college kids who were studying computer programming and had too much time on their hands.

Computer experts, of which there were a few, even in those days, re-assured the worried millions by stating that all that was needed to prevent a virus from invading your computer was to not open any e-mail attachments that you didn't know who sent them and eventually they would get bored and go away. How wrong they were!

Sadly those days computer hacking has grown to a multi-million industry and hackers are no longer playing for kicks, but to rob people of their money and their identity. There is not a stone on the cyber highway that these super sophisticated cyber criminals have left unturned to find a crack in a computer's defensive armour in order to infiltrate their systems.

And despite how far they have come, you can be re-assured that hackers still remain sentimental for the good old days, The days when you could send out a few hundred thousand phony e-mails complete with attachments and there would always be a couple of hundred unsuspecting surfers who would fall into the trap and open them. Because, believe it or not, there still a considerable number of hackers who remain convinced that the old ways are still the best, and send of a few dodgy e-mails every now and again, and there are still a few surfers whose curiosity overcomes them and are compelled to open the attachment to see what is inside.

Virus prevention is not something that you can take chances with. Any surfing the web or receiving e-mails need to protect themselves from these attacks, no matter where they come from. And the only way is to install powerful anti-virus software before sentiment gets a hold of you.

 

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