How to avoid e-mail threats

Checking your e-mail has become a dangerous business. The number and types of e-mail borne threats that can cause harm to your computer or your privacy are growing and you will need to take computer help for it.

Q: Can I get a virus just by reading an e-mail message?

A: When all e-mail was sent as plain text, it was impossible to contract a computer virus just by reading e-mail. That's because something - a programme, worm, or other active threat - actually has to run on your computer in order to infect it. When e-mail is sent in HTML format - the same format used to create Web pages, on which all sorts of programmes can run automatically - the possibility that you could receive a virus upon reading an e-mail message does exist. Increasingly today, we all send and receive e-mail in HTML format, which means that we are all the more vulnerable to contracting a potentially destructive computer virus just by reading our mail. There are, however, three ways to safeguard against this. The first is to keep your e-mail programme up-to-date, downloading and applying the latest security patches and fixes. The second is to use a current-generation virus scanner with built-in e-mail scanning, and keep the virus signatures current. Most anti-virus programmes offer automatic scanning of both incoming and outgoing e-mail messages. The third way involves setting up your e-mail programme to allow messages to be read only in plain text format. Most e-mail programmes provide this option. In Microsoft's Outlook programme, for instance, you would open the Tools menu, and select ‘Options.’ Then, from the ‘Options’ dialog box, click ‘E-mail Options,’ and select the check box labelled “Read all standard mail in plain text.” When you do this, any mail that arrives in HTML format is converted into plain text, and any harmful code that might have run automatically is effectively neutralised. Remember, though, that most e-mail viruses are contracted when you perform some action, such as opening an infected attachment or clicking a link that takes you to a site that downloads a virus on to your computer.

So the golden rule of reading e-mail is this: if it looks suspicious, don't open anything attached to it or click any links in it. These days, it makes sense not to click links in e-mail messages at all. Instead, if you think a legitimate source has sent you a message, open a web browser separately and visit the web site on your own.