Attachments

[Barry Karas]

28-Aug-06

I have a friend who sends attachments to me. Those attachments may be
infected with malware. My anti-virus and anti-spyware scanners are updated
daily and I use them. In other words, I trust the sender. However, the
attachments may be infected inadvertently. Is there anything else I can do,
or should I just live with the problem?

Thank you,

Barry Karas

 

[Donny Broome]

In my opinion, you haven't clearly stated your question. Just hit the delete
key and be done with it. What sort of attachments? How important are these
emails? Why would they inadvertently be infected? How do his attachments
differ from those of other senders? We need more information.

 

[Ghostrider]

28-Aug-06

I have a friend who sends attachments to me. Those attachments may be
infected with malware. My anti-virus and anti-spyware scanners are
updated daily and I use them. In other words, I trust the sender.
However, the attachments may be infected inadvertently. Is there
anything else I can do, or should I just live with the problem?

Thank you,

Barry Karas

It is not going to hurt to do the scans anyway, friend or not.
Always play it safe for one can never be sure just how secure is
even a trusted site.

 

[Barry Karas]

In my opinion, you haven't clearly stated your question.

I have Windows XP Pro with SP2.

Just hit the delete key and be done with it. What sort of attachments? How
important are these emails? Why would they inadvertently be infected? How
do his attachments differ from those of other senders? We need more
information.

± 90% are not very important. My friend is not very experienced with
computers. Many of the attachments are pictures. (You may know the old
saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. Most other senders use
text-only.

What other information is needed?

Thank you,

Barry Karas
***************************************************************************

 

[D@annyBoy]

you mean along the way, the attachments were being injected with malware before
landing in your mailbox?
I seriously doubt that it is possible.

when receiving attachments, you trust nobody

 

[Barry Karas]

The attachments may have been infected before my friend received them.

A-V and A-S scanners are not perfect, even though they may be 99+%
effective. Occasionally, malware slips through. Short of having multiple A-V
and A-S scanners (which could cause problems) common sense works most of the
time.

Are most scanner malware definitions updated before the fact or after it?

Thank you,

Barry Karas
******************************

 

[D@annyBoy]

in this case, ask your friend to scan the attachments before forwarding them to
you