daffodil,
you ask a very good question. one that, imo, there is much confusion about.
although i am not a regular aol user, i do keep it around as a back up isp. i went there to grab an answer to your question. hope it helps and i welcome any alternative opinions or info... <g3>
"QUESTION: Can I get a virus simply by reading E-Mail?
ANSWER: In regards to the AOL E-Mail client, if there is no file attachment, then the answer is a very resounding no. You can't.
============PC users try this little experiment.============
Locate the Windows calculator program (CALC.EXE, probably in your Windows folder). Open it with NotePad, copy it to the Windows clipboard, and then paste it into the body of an E-Mail. Now mail it to yourself and then open the mail when it arrives. Does the calculator program begin to execute? No, it sure doesn't. Your E-Mail reader simply displays it, because that's all it was designed to do.
With AOL, here's how you might receive a virus from reading E-Mail.
1) You have your download manager set up to automatically launch MS Word when a Word document is downloaded.
2) You have your Flash Sessions set up to automatically download attachments (very unwise, although the act of simply downloading is not dangerous in itself).
3) You receive a Word document in your E-Mail during a Flash Session, the document gets downloaded, and MS Word is launched. When this happens, the macro virus will execute. NOTICE, two very critical steps took place here: First, the file was downloaded. Second, it was executed. Well, in the case of macro viruses, "interpreted" is a more appropriate term, but the point remains: At the risk of sounding redundant, it was 1) downloaded, and 2) executed/interpreted. If these two things don't occur, then no infection can take place."
:)
mark |
