What Can You Do to Prevent Virus Infection?

Fact: You can't get a virus just by reading the body of an email message. You must open an attachment to get a virus.
Fact: Virus protection software is not a guarantee – it can only protect you from the viruses that it knows about.

Here are some steps to help you decide whether or not to open an attachment:

• Don't open an attachment from someone you don't know.
• Don't open an attachment from someone you DO know if you aren't expecting it.
• Don't assume attachments from friends are harmless! Many viruses spread by automatically sending themselves to the addresses found in the victim's address book; they often have subject lines that look like a personal email. When in doubt, contact your friend to see if the attachment is legitimate.
• Don't trust that a file with an "apparent" extension such as ".jpg," is actually a photo. Some viruses will use ".jpg" as part of the file name with the real (hidden) extension of "exe," which is carrying a virus.

Antivirus at EITS

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