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The Postman Rings Twice, But E-mails ForeverDate Added: April 15, 2008
When computer viruses first infiltrated e-mail servers, virus creators had to employ a type of social engineering to encourage their potential victims to unleash their malicious payload. They crafted attachments with interesting file names and christened the e-mails carrying them with irresitible subject lines, knowing that the average person's curiosity was all it often took to kill the CPU. That was a long time ago. Viruses and their distribution methods have become far more sophisticated, making them harder to tell from the average mail. Today, the notion that you can protect yourself from a virus infestation simply by knowing which e-mails to avoid is just plain ludicrous, but that doesn't stop hoaxes like this one from continuing to circulate and evolve. Get this E-mail message sent around to your contacts ASAP. PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS! You should be alert during the next few days. Do not open any message with an attachment entitled 'POSTCARD,' regardless of who sent it to you. It is a virus which opens A POSTCARD IMAGE, which 'burns' the whole hard disc C of your computer. This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list. This is the reason why you need to send this e-mail to all your contacts. It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it. If you receive a mail called' POSTCARD,' even though sent to you by a friend, do not open it.! Shut down your computer immediately. This is the worst virus announced by CNN. It has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept. COPY THIS E-MAIL, AND SEND IT TO YOUR FRIENDS. REMEMBER: IF YOU SEND IT TO THEM, YOU WILL BENEFIT ALL OF US. Some of my more ardent readers may correctly think that this one looks familiar. It should. Save for a couple of minor edits, it is nearly identical to the olympic torch virus warning circulating since early 2006. That one has spawned several "children," - including the December 2006 Merry Christmas warning - but was itself an offspring of the much older A Card For You and WTC Survivor hoaxes. Virus warnings play on common societal fears that something we do, such as unknowingly opening an infected file, will cause us a great deal of heartache and embarrassment, since our infection will undoubtedly spread to others and, thus, they will know we were foolish enough to fall for the hook. Yet, in the 'real world,' relying on e-mailed virus warnings to ensure the safety of your computer and the data it contains is foolhardy at best and suicidal - technologically speaking - at worst. True protection from unwanted intrusions on your data and hardware comes from active, up-to-date, real-time antivirus software. These programs are inexpensive, effective and easy to install. If you currently are browsing the internet without protection, you are asking for trouble - trouble that all the forwarded e-mail warnings in the world won't prevent. For more that you can do to make sure your computer is as safe as it can be, please read Protecting Your PC in the Chain-Breaker's Library. Then, never forward another virus warning. Break this chain. References: None |