So now there’s yet another new virus out there, “Bugbear”.
Simple steps to protect yourself against viruses:
-Don’t use Microsoft Outlook. “I know, let’s build scripting into the email client, and let scripts run automatically when emails come in!” Idiots. Outlook is the only program I could imagine letting a malicious virus grab all email addresses and mail random user files to random destination addresses appearing to come from you. Not that Sendmail (Unix) would NOT be able to do this, but you’d be more likely to know if you were about to run it.
-Don’t use Microsoft products at all. Unix or MacOS are far less likely to get viruses, partly because they’re less common but also because they’re inherently more secure and better-written. I have NEVER been “infected” by a Mac virus, and I use email on the Mac a LOT more than on Windows where I’ve had “close calls” with several (and had to deal with many more).
-No matter what OS/email client you have, run (and purchase if necessary) the latest updates. The security hole that allows this one was plugged over a year ago, if you’ve been running Microsoft updates regularly. (Of course, the way M$ does it, there’s the possibility of a really nasty virus masquerading as an update…)
-Separate your data from your applications. Data in one folder, applications in another wherever possible (Quiz: where is your email stored? Go ahead, try to find the email files. Are they in your documents directory?). BACK UP YOUR DOCUMENTS FOLDER. The best way to do this for now is to copy it to CD-ROM every now and then; once a week would be best. CDs are really inexpensive. Recreating lost data is really expensive.
I think that part of the motivation for virus writers must be a need to demonstrate other people’s stupidity – be that of people who write insecure junk like Microsoft, or the people who run it (without proper attention/precautions).
Sure, I’m a Mac bigot. The other day a co-worker bought a new computer to replace his old one that had “died”.
“Did you get a Mac?”
“No, this was a lot cheaper.”
“What, you want to _keep_ having problems?!?!?”