Viruses and Virus Hoaxes
Viruses are a real danger to computers and to computer data. People
who write viruses deserve the odium of every computer user whose time
they have wasted.
However, there is another waste of time and resources: hoaxes that warn
computer users that they can get a virus from reading an e-mail message.
Here are the facts.
- You should be alert to computer viruses and and protect
yourself by keeping current anti-virus software on your machines.
- You can ignore any warning that tells you not to read an email
message. It is not possible to get a virus simply by reading email. An
infection via email comes only when an infected attachment is
opened or executed.
- You should disable automatic execution of attachments.
Here are some web pages on the subject: