How can a virus be in a .DOC file?
I thought that .DOC files were only document (text) files with codes
to maintain formatting, text, colors, etc. How can a virus be in one
of them? They are not executable?
Thanks
..DOC files are most often from Microsoft Word. Because of the way that
Microsoft wrote Word, a person can put something called a "macro" into
the document. A macro is a relatively small computer program, in a
sense.
Within the macro are instructions for Word to follow, just like in any
other program. They can go way beyond just setting fonts, margins,
indent, etc. The problem is that some of those instructions are
powerful enough to cause problems with your computer. It is possible
to write a macro that does virus-like things.
The same thing applies to some other Microsoft programs, like the
Excel spreadsheet. There are also other small programs that Windows
uses that can be used to deliver a virus-like problem. The current
wave of "e-mail viruses" are an example of that.
I have received four viruses in the past month via e-mail. My
anti-virus program, Norton, caught them all before they did any
damage. If you don't have an up-to-date anti-virus package, you could
be the victum of one of these without your knowledge.
The reason that I received these is that a friend insists on sending
all e-mailed jokes, stories, etc. in an inappropriate way. He puts the
names of all the people on his e-mail list into the TO: field. That
way, everyone has the e-mail of everyone else. Some of those people
then forward the joke to others, using the same technique. This
snowballs so that one e-mail can have dozens of e-mail addresses in
it.
If ANY one of the machines that received the e-mail becomes infected
with an e-mail virus, the virus sends itself to EVERY e-mail address
in the machine. This is NOT just the addresses that the infected
machine has sent to or received from. It includes every address that
is embedded in every e-mail that is in the machine. It spreads like
the flu when a person sneezes in a crowded elevator.
There are also a fairly high number of viruses (actually trojans, but
still dangerous) posted in newsgroups. These are usually with subjects
like "xxxx topless" or "xxxx nude" where xxxx is the name of a well
know person. Most of these are 2-300 lines long.
Since you cannot have a decent picture in under a thousand lines (in
my personal opinion), these are easy to spot. They are also usually in
groups where such pictures are off-topic. That is another tip off.
