As every moderately adept computer
user knows, you can add attachments to emails. You can attach
documents, photos, or perhaps music to your emails and send them
to any recipient you desire. The unfortunate fact is that some
computer users have decided to design attachments that can cause
a great deal of harm to your computer. An email attachment could
potentially cause your computer to run slow, send your passwords
to unknown recipients over the internet, and corrupt or destroy
completely your personal files or your hard drive.
The point is not to avoid opening any email attachments at
all, but to be aware of harmful file extensions, avoid opening
attachments from people you do not know, and make sure you have
a good anti-virus program installed on your computer. The are
some types of viruses and Trojan Horses that will cause your
email software, such as Outlook, to resend email messages containing
harmful attachments with your name as the sender, without your
knowledge. Some of these harmful attachments operate so quickly
that your entire computer could be infected before your anti-virus
software has time to alert you to their presence. Email attachments
with file extensions such as .jpg, .bmp, and .txt are generally
safe to open.
If an email attachment you receive contains file extensions
such as url, .doc, or .xls, you can generally consider them
safe if you know the sender, but these extensions are capable
of causing damage to your computer, so be very careful if you
are uncertain or unfamiliar with the sender. Files containing
the extensions .exe, .vbs, and .com should be treated with extreme
caution. Executable files, Visual Basic Script, and .com extensions
have the power to do a lot of harm to your computer, and possibly
your entire network if you are in an office environment.
These are just a sample of the possible file extensions and
the damage they may or may not cause, but you need to be certain
your anti-virus software is up to date and that you use extreme
caution in opening email attachments. Opening a single email
attachment from an unknown source could infect your entire computer.
