EMAIL VIRUS

These virus are the most common ones as they are so easy to spread. You just need to click on an attachment send by your friend or colleague and your PC is then affected by it. Duo to this factor they are found to be existing on every system.

First email worm

The first email virus was Melissa first found on 26th march 1999. Its basic aim was to trick email readers to download a word file and when that file was executed,  it would immediately open the address book of the victim and then send 50 copies of the same word file to those contacts through email. And due to this property it became quite fast in its propagation.  

Written by David L. Smith this virus was one of the most fast spreading viruses ever made just because it choose emails as its method of propagation.

So you can see that how harmful these email viruses can be.

What can you do to protect yourself?

1.       Never open attachments before scanning them for virus.

2.       Never accept attachments form unknown sources.

3.       Never ever click on an attachment directly. First download it and after scanning it open.

4.       Look at the attachment extension and make sure that it is the same file you were looking for.

5.       Avoid attachments with extensions like .exe ,.vbs, .js , .com , .bat .

6.       If you are unsure about a particular attachment mail back the sender and make sure that he personally mailed the attachment to you.

7.       Always keep your antivirus definitions up to date.

8.       Also keep your windows updated.