> I am really glad you made this announcement. I will not open files
unless I know someone personally
I may be beating a dead horse, but my understanding is that many of
these malicious programs hijack legitimate address books. You cannot
use the sender as a test of goodness.
Example:
Let's say I enjoy sharing humorous stories with my friends on the
internet. When I hear a new joke I send it to my friends A, B, C and D.
Mr Virus will attach itself to an old message that I really did send to
A, B, C and D and then resends it. The email return address shows
that it came from me (and it did come from my computer and went
through my ISP account). A, B, C and D are delighted to get another
joke from me and pop the attachment open. Bang! They are infected.
The life form replicates itself.
One strategy that I use is to limit max size mail downloads to 20kB.
Many mail programs default to 50kB but can be set by the user. The
bearbug attachment is 51kB.