Email Viruses, Worms and Spam

Spreading of Viruses, Worms, Malware and Spam through email is one of the most effective means of infecting a PC.    Since everybody uses email it has become one of the easiest and most common ways to contract an infection for your PC.    Anything can be sent via email, whether it be a Virus, Worm, Malware or just plain old Spam.     Any title can be given to an email to trick a user into opening an attachment with the email or opening the email itself.     For example, the Subject could read Must see Pics of Brittney Spears, or Really Funny Video.   If the email was sent to you from a friend who you trust, you would probably be inclined to watch it.     What you may not know is that your friends PC has been infected with any number of infections that reside on the internet.    Sometimes it may just be a link to a website that is sent to you.   Clicking on this link can infect your computer.    Your friend may not even know that their PC is infected.

Many of these Worms, Viruses etc. can send out Blanket Emails to all of your contacts in your address book.  This is similar to what can happen on Facebook if you contract particular infections.  They will send out messages from You to all of your Facebook friends thereby spreading the virus all across Facebook and the Internet.    This allows viruses and malware to spread very quickly over the internet.   With new infections coming out everyday, your Antivirus protection may not even be aware of the latest infections for a few days.    You should always be careful of any email with an attachment or link sent to you even from a friend.    If you are not sure about it, do not take the chance.  You can always ask them about the email to make sure.   As I mentioned earlier, many times people do not realize their PC's security has been compromised and my be completely unaware that they are sending out these bogus emails.

Here is a recent news article about an email scam that did a lot of damage.   It mentions a free Adult site, but instead gives you a nasty virus.  This was spread through email.  Read the article here:

http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/bizarre/12002207581227/site-promises-free-porn-delivers-virus/

This was so effective that it was actually able to infect many corporate networks.    The best way to protect yourself against these is do not click on the attachments or links within the email.    Viruses, Worms, and Malware will continue to be spread via email as it is extremely effective.

Spam is another topic associated with email.  While it is more of a nuisance and annoyance, it is designed with one thing in mind.  Getting you to click on something and purchase some fake product, medication, sexual enhancement and host of other things.    It is similar to junk mail but on a much larger scale.  Spam in heavy doses can take down a network due to the increased traffic coming into the Servers etc.   All email providers have some sort of Spam protection built in but there is plenty of Spam that still gets through.  Spam targets people's wallets and only requires a very small success rate to be profitable.  This why it will continue to be a problem for consumers.

A recent article from Spamfighter lists the United States as the biggest originator of Spam in the world.

http://www.spamfighter.com/News-15083-USA-Reported-As-Greatest-Originator-of-Spam.htm

While the US is the largest originator of Spam, China is largest country where this Spam is hosted.    With the hosting located in foreign countries, it makes it very difficult to crack down and prosecute Spammers.   The purpose of Spam is simply to trick the user into purchasing something.  It may also give out your email address to other Spam sites thereby increasing the amount of Spam you receive.    Spam is easily spread through email by Spam Bots.    A Spam Bot is a program (spider, bot, crawler) on the Internet that gathers e-mail addresses to send spam to. There are countless e-mail addresses on Web site "contact us" pages as well as on blogs and newsgroups. Since they are typically coded in the "mailto" format, which when clicked, causes the address to open an e-mail message window, they are easily located (see mailto:).

These Spam Bots do not sleep or take breaks and just work 24 hours a day sending out Spam to any email addresses it can find.    Be sure to empty your Spam folder and Junk folder on a regular basis.     Do not click on any of the Spam emails because you have no idea what could really be contained in it.  It could be a link to a virus, malware or a nasty worm.   When it comes to malicious software via email, play it safe and do not click on anything.  If you are suspicious do not click it.  Ask the sender about it.  If you do not know the sender, do not open it.  Just delete it and move on.   If it is legitimate then the sender can always resend it to you.

Email Viruses, Worms, Malware and Spam will continue to plague everyday users in an attempt to infect their PC's.  The best thing about these types of infections is they are pretty easy to stop and prevent.   Do not click on any attachments or links within the email.  If you are sure that it is from a legitimate source and the file is safe, then you are alright.   If you have any doubts at then do not take the chance.

Thanks for reading and have a great rest of the week.

Steve

www.zolexpc.com