Week 3

Protection:

a. Viruses     i. What are they and how do you get them?
In the "old days" you would receive an email with an attachment that contained a virus. Like every thing else in this world, things have changed. Now days virus is a small piece of software that piggybacks on real programs. For example, a virus might attach itself to a program such as a spreadsheet program. Each time the spreadsheet program runs, the virus runs too, and it has the chance to reproduce by attaching to other programs. Before you know it you computer is flooded with them. There are several different kinds.
    e-mail viruses travels as an attachment to e-mail messages, This one is the most common, and believe it or not may get to you by way of a friend. The reason for this is the virus replicates itself by automatically mailing itself to dozens of people in the victim's e-mail address book. Some e-mail viruses don't even require a double-click they just launch when you view the infected message in the preview pane of your e-mail software. A Trojan horse on the other hand is simply a computer program. The program claims to do one thing, like be a game, but instead does damage when you run it. A ferocious enough Trojan can just up and erase your hard drive.
    In my opinion a worm can be the most destructive because of how it spreads. It is a small piece of software that uses computer networks and security holes to replicate itself. A copy of the worm scans the network for another machine that has a specific security hole. It copies itself to the new machine using the security hole, and then starts replicating from there, as well. In short, a worm can enter you house on one computer and spread to the rest of the computers in your house in a matter of minutes.

    ii. Who sends them?
The answer is, every one with a computer can. Last time I check, it takes on average, a whole eleven seconds for an unprotected computer to receive a virus. Most people think if they install the anti virus then they are done. Problem is new viruses come out every week. Updating your antivirus program constantly is a must. This is not the same as scanning your computer. Updating is your program getting new antivirus definitions from the company you purchased it from. If you do not get updates then your software can not protect you against the latest threats.
You can almost count on the fact that most of the viruses you get came from some one who has you in their address book. That person has a virus on their computer that is freely and unknowingly sharing it to all his friends.

    iii. How to protect yourself?
Keeping your Antivirus updated every day if you are on DSL. If you use a dial up but do not go on line every day, then you should update your protection first thing when you do go on line. Set up your program to scan your computer for viruses at least once a week. If your computer starts to act strange, like locking up or programs not running, it does not always mean you have a virus. It is a good indication that something is not running correctly and you should get it looked at.


b. Spam
    i. Where do they come from
This is a hard question to answer since it is somewhat difficult to completely define which e-mail constitutes spam and which does not. For example, many of those "good luck" chain-letters you've received probably came directly from family, friends, and fellow students and/or co-workers. Many of e-mail scams (such as the one promising fortune for assistance with multi-million dollar bank transfers) are often sent from free, web-created e-mail accounts that can be setup on any one of a dozen or more web sites that provide such services. In the case of commercial spam, many of the less scrupulous spammers have resorted to a wide variety of "guerilla tactics" to get their advertisements past spam filters and in front of as many people as possible. The push to restrict and curtail spam by blocking it has likely fueled the efforts of these subversive tactics, since as the "noise" level of spam is decreased by efforts to block spam it becomes more likely that users will actually the smaller number of advertising messages that do make it through to their inboxes. Other than the use of freely-created web-based e-mail accounts described above, the five most common methods of delivering spam include:

Professional Spammers:
    These are essentially marketing companies that sell "spam" services to other companies, much like any marketing company would sell other forms of advertising services. Unfortunately in the on-line world, much of the cost of this type of direct marketing is shifted to the receiver of the advertisement rather than in the sender of the message. Because of widespread efforts to block spam, professional spammers must use creative techniques to either get users to "opt-in" or "request" the advertisements, or else find creative ways to harvest e-mail addresses and deliver spam so that they cannot easily be blocked from sending spam again in the future. One technique professional spammers use is to "hop" from ISP (Internet Service Provider) to ISP, so that it becomes quite difficult to determine where the next round of spam they send will be coming from. Many ISP's only charge in the hundreds or perhaps a few thousand dollars for a setup of a commercial sit, and a professional spammer can use this to send potentially millions of e-mail message before having their service cut off. Companies That Send Their Own Spam: Well known businesses sometimes engage in the practice of sending spam directly from their own servers. Although most businesses have now learned to refrain from this practice, the issue remains a troubling one, since all established businesses should be well aware of the unacceptable nature of this activity.

Use Of A Third Party Server To Relay Spam:
    At the present time, the most common method of sending spam is to "highjack" the mail server of a computer located somewhere across the internet, and then use that server to send spam. Often, hundreds of thousands or even millions of messages are sent before it is discovered what is occurring. Once the true system owner discovers what allowed their system to be "hijacked' for distributing spam, they often act to correct the situation as soon as possible, however by then the spammer has accomplished his goal and all of the messages have already been sent through the "hijacked" server. In order to send more spam, the spammer must search the internet for the next open victim who's server can be exploited to do the work of delivering millions of spam e-mail messages.

"Hijacking" Of Personal Computer Systems:
    With high-speed internet access most personal computers are connected directly to the internet and are not well secured, leaving them open to attack and exploitation. Many spammers have discovered that a single personal computer, probably much like the one you are using to read this message, can in the hands of a spammer be transformed into a powerful e-mail spam delivery server capable of delivering many hundreds of thousands of e-mail messages per hour. Because of the huge number of personal computer systems that are connected to the Internet, and because more are being connected every day, spammers are often able to "hop" from one personal computer to the next, or in some cause exploit dozens of systems at the same time, to continue to deliver spam across the Internet. The problem of unprotected personal computer systems continues to grow each day and protecting against spam and other malicious use from these systems also continues to grow more and more challenging.

"Opt-Out" Mailing Lists:
    Some companies and organizations have adopted the practice of "signing up" individual users for e-mail lists without their permission, perhaps only with the briefest previous contact with the responsible company. Other companies have obtained the users consent to add them to the list surreptitiously, often by offering "free software" or promising other "prizes" and then only in the very fine print explaining that by providing the e-mail address the user agrees to receive any and all e-mails from the company in question. These companies sometimes provide an "opt out" link or contact information so that the user can be removed from future mailings, but these links are just as often used to gather information about who is actually reading the mail messages and then use that information to send even more spam.


    ii. Why can't some of them be blocked
The main reason is when spam goes through your Internet providers server, they use various programs to block "known" spam. One problem is, the people sending the spam use the same software so they also know how to get around it. The other reason is, spam is not blocked by the message you see, but by what you do not see. Many spam blocking programs look for header that is encoded within the email. Because of how complicated the coding can be, all the spammer has to do is change 1 or 2 little things and it becomes a whole new email.
Example:
Received: from [??.???.???.???] (helo=dsl88.230-37315.ttnet.net.tr)
by www.koros.ru with smtp (Exim 4.66)
(envelope-from info@domain,net>)
id 1JLpBD-000F8P-Uu; Mon, 04 Feb 2008 03:27:25 +0300
Message-ID: 005901c8669a$a0920520$55c29b0a@chalkboard>
: "Iri" info@domain,net>
: contact@domain,ru>
: =?windows-1251?B?xO7j7uLu8CDg8OXt5Ps=?=
: Sun, 3 Feb 2123 22:26:08 +0300
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0056_01C866B3.C5C4FE60"<br /> X-Priority: 3<br /> X-MSMail-Priority: Normal<br /> X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.3138<br /> X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.3138<br /> This is a multi-part message in MIME format.<br /> ------=_NextPart_000_0056_01C866B3.C5C4FE60<br /> Content-Type: text/plain;<br /> charset="windows-1251"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
=D1=C5=CC=C8=CD=C0=D0 =E4=EB=FF =C1=D3=D5=C3=C0=CB=D2=C5=D0=CE=C2, =
=DE=D0=C8=D1=D2=CE=C2 =E8 =D0=D3=CA=CE=C2=CE=C4=C8=D2=C5=CB=C5=C9
"=C0=D0=C5=C4=C0: =CF=D0=C0=C2=CE=C2=DB=C5, =
=C1=D3=D5=C3=C0=CB=D2=C5=D0=D1=CA=C8=C5 =C8 =CD=C0=CB=CE=C3=CE=C2=DB=C5 =
=C0=D1=CF=C5=CA=D2=DB"


Email: (Outlook express and Outlook only) If you have another program you would like to review, please let me know. What you really want to do when looking over your mail program is look for the common settings. For outlook and Outlook Express those are under tools and accounts, or tools and email accounts. For Thunderbird it would be Tools and Account settings. For Netscape it may be under Tools and Settings. The point is, for every mail program, it may look different but most of them use the same wording to help you find your way around.
a. Creating an account
Both programs start with clicking on "tools"
Outlook Express = "Accounts" Click on the Mail tab. To create a new account, go to the right of the window and click on Add then Mail. It will begin a wizard that will start to walk you through your set up.
Outlook = Mail accounts, then Add new account. On the next window the most common type of account to a POP. Then just fill out the fields on the next window.
For all mail accounts you will need to have the following info from your provider.
Incoming Server
Outgoing Server
User name
Password


POP, IMAP and SMTP settings
POP = Post Office Protocol
    Most of your incoming mail settings will start with mail. or pop. This means that you are using a local mail program on your computer to reach out to the mail server of your Internet Service Provider (ISP) grabbing your mail, and "downloading" to your local computer.

IMAP = Internet Message Access Protocol
    This incoming mail setting is not used very often. It does something completely different than the POP server. This settings allows you to use your local mail program to view your email with out down loading it. If you delete the email it will delete it on the server. How ever if you just read it, it will stay on the server. This setting is use a lot if you are setting up the same email address on multiple computers. Or if you check you mail at home then travel and use different computers to get onto the internet. This setting will leave all your mail with the ISP so you can look at it from any where.

SMTP = Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
    This is the out going server. This is the setting that causes more problems with mail than any other. The out going mail server is always under the control of the company that you connect to the internet with. That is why many times if you mail is with one company and your internet connection is with another, you can have problems.

    Sending attachments
Putting an attachment in Outlook or Outlook Express is as simple as click and drag. Once you start the new email all you need to do is left click and hold on the attachment and drag it into the body of the email. You can also use the option at the top of the window called "Insert". Then you can pick a file or picture that you want to send.

    Saving attachments
For both mail programs you would right click on the attachment and left click on Save As. Then you would select the folder you want the file to be saved in.