permaculture

[Mitra <mitra_lists@earth.path.net>]

I'm a techie, on all these non-techie lists, I guess its time to write 
something useful to repay all the good advice I've received ...

Here are some simple steps you can take. These are for any of the modern 
Windows environments configured in the default way. In order to spread 
Viruses need to target your typical dumb user, who hasn't taken these 
steps, so if you take them you'll be protected against 99.9% of viruses.

You could probably get away with either buying Virus software (#1) or 
taking all the remaining steps (#2..#6) but I really recommend doing the 
lot. I've done all these things, and as a result have never been infected, 
although I see probably one virus a week in email. None of the steps below 
affect my ability to get work done, for example by stopping things that 
there are good reasons to want to do.

1: Get a good virus protection software that updates itself regularly - 
e.g. Norton Antivirus www.symantec.com or McAfee www.mcafee.com, PAY FOR 
THE SUBSCRIPTION (about $10 or $20 per year), believe me its worth the 
money compared to rebuilding a trashed system.

2: Open My Computer -> C:/  then choose View -> Folder Options -> View, and 
make sure that there is NO check mark by "Hide file extensions for known 
file types", this will make sure  that you can see the type on files before 
opening them.

3: Set the correct options in the programs most commonly used with Macros
Open Microsoft Word
- if its Word2000 go to Tools -> Macros -> Security and set to High - there 
is almost never a reason why a document will contain Macros for a good reason.
- if its earlier versions of Word its something like Options -> 
General  and make sure it has "Enable Macro Virus protection" turned on.
Do the same thing in Microsoft Excel, and if you have it Microsoft Power Point
There is probably something similar in Outlook - I don't use it, if you 
know how it works let me know and I'll update this file.

4: ONLY open something where you know the type cannot hold viruses, 
specifically, where the name is  .gif, .jpg, .swf  (flash/ shockwave) 
.txt   and (if you've taken the precautions above) *.doc and *.xls , .html 
is probably OK meaning that its as safe as a web page, although people keep 
finding vulnerabilities there.
In particular look out for tricky things that are something like 
xxxx.jpg.vbs   which is a Visual Basic virus pretending to be a JPG, its 
the letters after the last period that count.
Just because it comes from someone you trust does NOT make it safe. Once 
your friends machine is infected the virus can pretend to be her.
In particular do NOT EVER OPEN ANYTHING ENDING IN .EXE .VBS or .SCR  these 
are really commonly used for viruses. There have been programs sent around 
as one of these which trashed systems but just looked like something fun.

5: Do NOT pass on virus warnings UNLESS they are dated, and have Links to 
the news story or a web page giving more information AND you have checked 
that link to check it makes sense. Any other Virus warning is itself a 
virus, passed along from dumb email user to dumb email user.

6: Update your operating system frequently, open Internet Explorer - go to 
Tools -> Windows Update and choose Product Updates, in particular install 
anything labelled a critical update or that talks about security - this is 
USUALLY easy.

Just in case you are interested I've attached a file listing of unsafe file 
extensions taken from McAfee. Note just how many there are, also note how 
it is a .TXT file and so cannot contain a virus, so its safe to open (if 
you trust me :-)  This is why its better to have

Hope this is helpful, if you know what you are doing, and have suggestions 
for me to add to this please email me privately - mitra@earth.path.net

- Mitra
VirusScan software initially looks for viruses only in files that are 
susceptible to infection. It uses a list of file name extensions to keep 
track of vulnerable files. This list appears in the Program Extensions dialog 
box, and is something you can edit to suit your own needs. In this list, ? 
symbols represent wildcards—
VirusScan software substitutes any character for the ? so that it scans more 
than one file type with similar extensions. For example, the software will 
use the .XL? wildcard to look for viruses in Microsoft Excel spreadsheet 
(.XLS) and template (.XLT) files. 

Note:   McAfee recommends that you scan your system thoroughly during your 
first scan operation, or periodically thereafter, without limiting the scope 
of the scan operation to these file types. This ensures that your system 
starts in a virus-free condition. You can then use this list of extensions to 
limit the scope of later scan operations.

Extension       File Type       File description
<BLANK> Any     Files with no extension.
.??_    Compressed      Windows compressed files.
.ARC    Archive LH ARC files, older version.
.ARJ    Archive Robert Jung .ARJ compressed archive files.
.ASP    Macro/script    Microsoft Active Server Pages files. These files 
contain script commands for use with Internet Information Server.
.BAT    Program DOS batch files.
.CAB    Compressed      Windows Compressed Application Binary or “cabinet” 
files.
.CDR    Macro   Corel Draw document files. Later versions of Corel Draw 
include a scripting language that can generate macro viruses.
.CLA    Program Java class files (truncated from .CLASS).
.COM    Program Command/binary image files. These common files run as 
infectable executable programs. DOS and Windows system files frequently make 
use of this extension.
.CSC    Script/macro    Corel script files. Script files can include viruses 
or generate macro viruses.
.DL?    Program Dynamic Link Library file; C++ dialog script files. Dynamic 
Link Library files are resource files linked to executable program files. 
Executable files can load viruses stored in them and run them as part of 
their native code.
.DOC    Macro   Microsoft Word document files. These files can contain Word 
Basic macros and, therefore, macro viruses.
.DOT    Macro   Microsoft Word document template files. These files can 
contain Word Basic macros and macro viruses.
.EXE    Program Executable files. Most software uses this extension to 
identify files that start their command shell or program kernel.
.GMS    Macro   Corel Global Macro Storage files.
.GZ?    Compressed      UNIX GNU Gzip compressed files.
.HLP    Macro   Windows Help files. These files can contain executable Word 
Basic or other macro code.
.HT?    Script/macro    Hyper Text Markup Language and related files; 
Microsoft Hyper Text template files. Although they are nominally plain text, 
these files can contain powerful scripting functions that act through browser 
software.
.ICE    Compressed      ICE compressed files.
.IM?    Program Image files for creating disk images.
.INI    Program Windows initialization files. Although these are generally 
text files, infected .INI files can cause mIRC clients to perform unwanted 
actions. 
.JS?    Script  JavaScript source files. JavaScript files can contain virus 
code that acts directly on web browsers.
.LZH    Compressed      LHARC compressed files.
.MD?    Macro   Microsoft Access database, add-in, and related files. These 
files can contain infectable Visual Basic for Applications macros.
.MPP    Macro   Microsoft Project files. These files can contain infectable 
Visual Basic for Applications macros.
.MPT    Macro   Microsoft Project template files. These files can contain 
infectable Visual Basic for Applications macros.
.MSG    Macro   Microsoft Mail, Exchange and Outlook message files. These 
files can contain script commands that can introduce virus infections.
.MSO    Macro   Microsoft Office 2000 files.
.OCX    Program Microsoft Object Linking and Embedding custom controls. These 
files are similar to ActiveX controls and can function as harmful software in 
their own right.
.OLE    Program Object Linking and Embedding object files. These files are 
similar to ActiveX controls. They are files created in one application to be 
embedded into files created by another application
.OV?    Program Overlay files.
.POT    Macro   Microsoft PowerPoint template files. These files can contain 
infectable Visual Basic for Applications macros.
.PP?    Macro   Microsoft Powerpoint document and slide show files. These 
files can contain infectable Visual Basic for Applications macros.
.RAR    Archive RAR compressed archives.
.RTF    Macro   Rich Text Format files. These files serve as a common text 
file format for many document files.
.SCR    Program Windows screen saver files.
.SHS    Program Windows shell script (scrap object) files. These files can 
introduce commands that cause unwanted behavior on the host computer.
.SMM    Macro   Lotus AmiPro spreadsheet files. These files include macro 
capabilities.
.SYS    Program DOS or Windows system files and device drivers. These 
executable files frequently start along with or as part of program execution.
.TAR    Archive UNIX tape archive files.
.VBS    Script  Visual Basic script files and VBScript files. VBScript is an 
implementation of Microsoft’s Visual Basic programming language. It powers 
special features on many web pages, and can directly manipulate many 
functions inside Microsoft Outlook and other software.
.VS?    Macro   Visio drawing and related files. Later Visio versions include 
infectable scripting extensions.
.VXD    Program Windows virtual device drivers. These are executable files 
that often reside in memory.
.WBK    Macro   Microsoft Word backup files.
.WPD    Macro   Corel WordPerfect document files.
.XL?    Macro   Microsoft Excel worksheet, add-in, toolbar, chart, dialog 
box, backup, macro, workspace, Visual Basic module, and template files. These 
files can contain infectable Visual Basic for Applications macros.
.XML    Script/macro    Extensible Markup Language files. Although they are 
nominally plain text, these files can contain powerful scripting functions 
that act through browser software.
.ZIP    Archive WinZip and PKZip compressed archive files.

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