E-mail likely gave recipient a 'worm'

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Jun 2, 2003 | by James Derk Scripps Howard News Service

Some great questions are in the box. Let's get to it.

Question: Something strange happened to me this afternoon when I logged onto my computer. I'm a church secretary and often receive mail from members. Thinking a message was from someone I knew, I clicked on it. When I opened the message, it said it contained a "worm."

The message was garbled text. I also noticed it didn't show any name or address. I then reported it to AOL and deleted it. Then I immediately went to my Norton AntiVirus program, which didn't report any virus.

Does that mean the "worm" is in my computer even though Norton didn't report anything? Also, my Norton Antivirus expires next week. Is there any other protection I can subscribe to that is less expensive?

Answer: Yes, you likely were infected -- and probably still are.

Norton (and any other virus protection) is only as good as the virus definitions you download every week. Using "Live Update," Norton makes definitions available every Wednesday. However, if you visit www.symantec.com every day, there are fresh definition files available daily. What most likely happened is your Norton was not updated recently. So right now, head to www.symantec.com and download the latest definitions then scan your whole PC. Then, like religion, download new files every day. It's a hassle, but it is worth it.

Your second question is more tricky. There are cheaper solutions out there, and I share your concern that Symantec is charging too much for "annual subscriptions" to the definitions. However, I like Norton's product a great deal. So what I do is wait until my subscription is nearly out and then buy the latest Norton Anti-Virus product, which often is deeply discounted. It's often close to free if you remember to mail in the rebate form. So then I end up with another year of definitions and the latest virus product.

Question: On Windows XP, messages keep popping up telling me my messenger service is open to the Internet and that anyone can send me pop-ups. Can you tell me a free way to get rid of this nuisance?

Answer: Yes. Download and install the program called Ad-Aware. Do a search on google.com for it. Also, keep your anti-virus and firewall up to date.

Question: Is it safe to give your credit card information to a seller on eBay?

Answer: It depends on the seller. Obviously, check the seller's feedback rating, but even that won't tell you much. Check with your credit card issuer, too; some are now giving out numbers that are good for only one transaction. The Better Business Bureau in the seller's town may also have some good info. Keep in mind if you are paying by PayPal or Billpoint or another payment service, the credit card info does not get to the seller, just to the payment service.

Question: I have Norton SystemWorks 2003. I have conflicting information on whether to install everything or just the virus protection. I know I need the virus protection, but what about all the other programs?

Answer: I would install the Anti-Virus and the Utilities portion. I have never liked the uninstaller (Cleansweep), and the "GoBack" product is a duplicate of the system restore function already included in Windows XP. I do like Norton's Disk Defragmenter (included in Utilities), but I find it times out a lot on my XP systems for some reason.

James Derk is new media editor for The Evansville Courier & Press. His e-mail address is jderk@evansville.net.