[HCRA] Possible Virus?

[Jim Mullen]

I received five mailing list rejections from non-members today. It's
possible these rejected messages contained a virus. I also received six
messages directly, all of which could have contained a virus. They didn't,
but they were not sensible messages and were most likely created by some
type of virus or worm - thankfully not harmful. These viruses and worms are
easy to get and quick to spread - often without the knowledge of the person
doing the spreading!

There was at least one post to the reflector that could have contained a
virus. I don't think it was infected, but be cautious of any emails that
have strange subject matter and odd, if any, text in the body of the
message.

So what should you do?

1.  Don't worry; delete any "questionable" emails without reading.
"Questionable" means you don't know the sender, the subject line makes no
sense and either the message body is blank or meaningless. If in doubt,
click delete. If it really was important the person will resend it.

2.  Be sure your anti-virus software is running.

3.  Be sure your anti-virus software is current.

DON'T worry about messages on the list. They are virus checked and stripped
of attachments and mime encoding before being remailed to the recipients.
It's no guarantee against a virus, but is usually pretty effective.
Additionally, unless you are a list member, the message won't be remailed.

I guess it would be a good time for everyone to make sure your anti-virus
software is running and current!

Thanks and address any questions directly to me.

Jim, KK1W