there's little worse than getting a malware infection or virus on your PC
and there are two main ways of getting infected the first is by visiting an
infected website the second is by opening an infected email in this short
video we're going to look at the second how to protect yourself from an infected
email the first step is actually to change your thinking if you're thinking
I want to prevent my computer from being attacked you've got it wrong because if
you ever think your computer is protected you'll relax and that's when
you'll get hit in today's world malware attacks are sophisticated silent and
inevitable you will be attacked and you can never afford to relax so it's much
better to think how can I reduce my vulnerability to an attack you need two
things the first is a firewall this is software that only allows your computer
to connect to trusted sources it blocks all the rest setting up a firewall
properly is complicated so most firewalls have generic settings the
firewall that comes with Windows 10 is a good example it's basic but it works but
even trusted sources can transmit malware an infected email is a good
example so you also need antivirus protection however the kind of antivirus
protection you can buy off the shelf works by checking incoming data against
a remote database of known threats and has two major weaknesses the database
must be current and the software must be able to detect the threat so the best
possible protection is to use a managed antivirus service make sure that you
have the best antivirus protection on your workstations and your servers if
you're in any doubt at all contact the techs at eTop Technology but an
infected email can get through your firewall because the firewall allows
connections to your email provider and it may bypass your antivirus software so
let's have a look at a real life example of a suspicious email here's one from my
inbox the first warning signal is the address now I've never heard of vzeillyrt.com
it calm and it's a strange sounding name and the second warning signal is the
subject re invoice it's a very vague title it's designed either to worry me
or to interest me because money is involved but the third warning signal is
the attachment you may be asked to open an attachment in order either to avoid a
negative consequence or to gain something valuable but by doing so you
can execute a hidden routine that will place malware on your machine the golden
rule is never click on an attachment unless you're a hundred percent certain
that it's safe these three warning signals together would make me delete
that email immediately and you should do the same but for training purposes let's
open it well the content certainly confirms my suspicions firstly the
grammars wrong see should not have a capital letter it's either a receipt or
an invoice it can't be both and wrong transfer that should be incorrect
transfer and I've never heard of HDFC bank which is very different from
vzeillyrt.com so let's go even one step further and allow outlook to show us the
attachment it says it's a PDF but I suspect otherwise let's look at it
online I don't have to download it so that's reasonably safe on my Mac now huh
just as I suspected it's not a PDF it's a word document which is possibly one of
the most risky formats to download they'll almost certainly be a macro
hidden in that word document somewhere that would have placed malware on my
machine if I downloaded it it could be a virus a keylogger spyware or adware
but whatever it is I don't want it on my machine follow the red flag signs if
there's an address you don't recognize with a vague subject that's about money
risk or gain and it has an attachment or a link you don't recognize delete it
immediately and if you think you have a virus call the techs at eTop
Technology we're here to help
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