The Internet Connection
(June 2000 Action for Libraries newsletter)
By Michael Sauers The recent I-Love-You virus has sparked many fears in the users of Microsoft Outlook.
Here's some advice you may find helpful to keep your computer virus free. Viruses like I-Love-You take advantage of a feature in Outlook that allows scripts (small
programs) to be embedded in e-mail. Outlook runs these scripts when the message
containing it is opened. The scripts not only infect the hard drive, but also direct Outlook
to forward the virus to others via e-mail to the addresses in your address book. Most people read this as meaning that just by reading the offending e-mail message, their
computers automatically become infected. This is not true. In Outlook most people read
e-mail by using the preview pane (pictured later in this article). By reading your e-mail
via the preview pane, the message has not officially been opened, and therefore, a script
will not run. To prove this, click on the script icon in the upper right corner of the preview pane; up
pops the following message: In order for Outlook to run the script, the message must first be opened into a new window
by double-clicking on the message in the list above the preview pane. As long as you don't click OK, the script (in this case the "This is a script" message)
cannot run, and your computer cannot be infected. (e.Users of Netscape Messenger don't need to worry about forwarding the virus via a
scripts-directed e-mail message, since Netscape doesn't use Microsoft Outlook. But the
virus can infect the computer's hard drive if the Netscape user opens the file attachment
of the e-mail message. So be cautious about opening file attachments in e-mail
messages, especially when they end with the extensions .vbs or .exe.)
