Virus/Worm alert

From our IT dept: We are anticipating a Virus/worm attack this week.
There is widespread concern in the IT community this week regarding expected virus / worm activity. Thursday September 11, 2003 will mark the 2nd anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
Here are some steps you can take to help avoid getting worms and virus on your PC.

1. Most of the worms and virus use e-mail to spread themselves. Keep your operating system and applications up-to-date and apply the latest patches when they become available. You can go the following site http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/en/default.asp and click on Scan for updates.

2. Configure Windows to always show file extensions. In Windows 2000, this is done through Explorer via the Tools menu: Tools/Folder Options/View - and uncheck "Hide file extensions for known file types". This makes it more difficult to for a harmful file (such as an EXE or VBS) to masquerade as a harmless file (such as TXT or JPG).

3. Never open e-mail attachments with the file extensions VBS, SHS or PIF. These extensions are almost never used in normal attachments but they are frequently used by viruses and worms.

4. Never open attachments with double file extensions such as NAME.BMP.EXE or NAME.TXT.VBS

5. When you receive e-mail advertisements or other unsolicited e-mail, do not open attachments in them or follow web links quoted in them.

6. If you feel that an e-mail you get from a friend is somehow strange - if it is in a foreign language or if it just says odd things, double-check with the friend before opening any attachments.