BRIEF summary: how to protect yourself from the Melissa virus

[Hope Ehn Dennis Ehn <ehn...>]

Ordinarily, computer-related messages might be considered inappropriate on
a Jewish Music list. At the moment, however, the media are full of
warnings about a *very dangerous* Word macro virus that sends E-mail and
crashes E-mail servers. In many of the stories, information on how to
avoid problems is hard to find, or is not very clear. After receiving
several verbose and not always accurate news stories from friends, I wrote
a short summary for them and for other friends about how to identify the
virus if it is sent to you, and how keep it from infecting your computer. 

Because *all* Internet users, including all readers of this list, are at
risk for receiving the Melissa virus as an E-mail attachment, I hope it
will not be considered wrong to post that summary here. This information
in it comes from an article in yesterday's New York Times. 

How to detect this virus in your E-mail Inbox:

1) "Subject: Important Message From... [someone you know]"
   The person from whom the message purports to come will be someone who 
   would have your E-mail address in his or her address-book file.

2) Body of the message: "Here is that document you asked for ... don't
   show anyone else  ;-)"

3) Attachment: A 40K Microsoft Word file called "list.doc".

If you receive such a message, DO NOT open the attachment. Delete the
message. Tell your friend or acquaintance that his or her computer is
apparently infected with the "Melissa" virus. 

If you have looked at the body of the message ("Here is that
document..."), don't worry. The article makes it clear that merely reading
that TEXT sentence will NOT infect your computer. To get infected, you
would have to open the attachment "list.doc" in Microsoft Word. 

The danger is apparently greatest for users of:
  * Microsoft Outlook
  * Microsoft Outlook Express 
These programs like to open attachments automatically. If possible,
disable that feature. Otherwise, see the Microsoft web site for security
upgrades. 

Hope Ehn              <ehn (at) world(dot)std(dot)com>

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