If you receive unexpected responses to email messages that you know you did not send, then you are likely an innocent victim of one of the many variants of viruses and worms currently polluting the Internet. This does not mean that your computer is infected. Many current viruses and worms try to propagate by sending themselves via email. It has become a standard tactic of malware (short for malicious software) writers to scan the infected computer for email addresses to which it can send itself. These addresses can be found in many places, including address books, mailboxes, and cached web pages. Sometimes the virus even makes them up, often by attaching variants of common names to common mail hosts (andy1@aol.com, andy2@yahoo.com, etc.). It is also a standard tactic to "spoof" the From: address by inserting one of these names as the sender. If your address is used as the sender, you might receive either a non-delivery message when the mail cannot be delivered or a notification from a virus scanner program that your message contained a virus. If the message is able to be delivered you might also receive a response from the recipient claiming that you sent her/him a virus. All this means is that some infected computer somewhere in the world contains a file with your email address in it. Again, it does not mean that your computer is infected. Of course it does not mean that your computer is “not” infected either. If you ever suspect that your computer has been infected, please call the IT Help Desk for assistance.
For more information on computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses click here.
Send mail to help.desk@ctcd.edu with questions or comments about this web site.
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