Every two weeks, regular as clockwork, this hoax that's been haunting
the Net every
two or three weeks for the last couple years creaks to life again. This
is the same putative "email virus" that "was announced yesterday morning
from IBM" or contains the dire safety label" the "AOL has said that this
is a very dangerous virus and that there is NO remedy for it" (as if
anyone from AOL would know a virus from a vee-belt). Simply put, you
CANNOT get
a virus (other than contact brain-farts) from email -- email is nothing
more than open ascii characters, into which no virus can be introduced,
period. For you troglodytes using PCs, you *can* get a virus from any
attached .exe file IF YOU OPEN THE FILE. Be wary of executable files from
strangers (far worse than candy).
For those of us who've done the smart thing from the get-go, and gotten
a Mac, the only current virus to be wary of is the dreaded DELDB
Auto-Start Worm, most generally attached to graphics files. These
viruses can be avoided altogether if you go to the "Quicktime Settings"
Control Panel, open it, navigate in the top pop-up to "AutoPlay," and
make sure both "Enable Audio CD AutoPlay" and "Enable CD-ROM AutoPlay"
are UNCHECKED. You don't need AutoPlay on to do anything with CDs, audio
or data, and simply unchecking these items will stop the Auto-Start Worm
cold. If you think you may have contracted it, go to :
www.versiontracker.com
and search for and download "Eradicator" -- check ANY disks (CDs
excepted, of course) on which you may have, or ever HAVE HAD, graphics
files. This includes hard drives AND removables. Running Eradicator WILL
kill the Auto-Start Worm 100% of the time, but watch out for removable
media from clients or vendors. Once you've disabled the two QuickTime
AutoPlay twins, you can't get the virus from a CD, but if you've EVER
gotten a graphics file from any source other than your own febrile mind
and creative talents, it's not a bad idea to run Eradicator. The
Auto-Start Worm is a wicked migrator.
That's the skinny
Bart
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