<snip email virus bull>

James, you ass...

DO *NOT* SEND CHAIN MAIL TO THE FFML, *EVEN IF* YOU THINK IT'S JUSTIFIED!!!

However, I can tell you that _all_ e-mail viruses are non-existant. Viruses
are essentially small programs that attach themselves to larger programs.
This means that they have to be _executed_ before they can do their dirty
work. However, when have you ever seen an e-mail reader that executes
e-mail messages?

The real reason why viruses can't spread through e-mail is because programs
are data. Your computer will only execute a given piece of "data" in memory
if it's explicitly told that the data is actually a valid program.
Otherwise, it will treat that data as any other piece of data; it assumes
that the data is not a program, and therefore not meant to be executed.

Because e-mails are generally interpreted as text on a screen, any e-mail,
even the code for a virus, will be deciphered according to the ASCII
protocol, and will show up as characters on your screen. The code for a
virus will appear as a bunch of random junk, and is perfectly harmless in
that form.

Even if an e-mail virus somehow made it into your e-mail program in
executable form, your system will most likely forbid the e-mail program
from modifying executable code. (After all, what is an e-mail program doing
modifying a program anyway?) Not only that, a virus finding itself on a
disk in executable form is very unlikely to be viable. Not only will the
system not know that the virus is an executable code (and therefore won't
take the chance of finding out. Even regular data will crash and burn if it
is directly executed by the computer), but the virus might be built for a
different processor or platform.

This is why Machintoshes are immune to the Michelangello virus. Anyone who
has tried running a PC game (or other program) on a Mac will quickly
discover that the Mac bitches at you. PCs run on the Intel 80x86 or Pentium
processors, while the Mac runs on the Motorola MC680x0 series or PowerPC
processors. Guys, these two processor makes don't even have the same
handedness! Even well-meaning PC programs generally do not run on Macs
unless it is ported into 68K or PPC code. The Mike virus is in Intel 80x86
machine code (or some-odd Intel processor), so it will find itself in the
equivelent of a bath of disinfectant on a Mac.

Microsoft Word/Excel/ect documents can and do transmit viruses: the viruses
are written in the Microsoft scripting languages, which is basically
"machine code" for the Microsoft virtual machines (ie, word processors and
spreadsheet programs). Those viruses CAN do major damage to your files.
Also, binary-encoded files encode the entire document as a text stream that
can be reproduced by an extraction program on your machine, and is
basically as good (or bad) as copying the file from a friend's disk.

Hmmm... Actually, come to think of it, e-mail viruses DO exist. We call it
"chain mail!" :)


So, Safe Hex includes being careful about executable files and script
files, but _not_ to regular e-mail messages. That is all.

JAMES BEGS TO DIFFER:

       A quick explaination though, is that I actually had someone send me
virus via an e-mail once.  Yes, it _can_ happen!

No, it can't. At least, not like that.

 I lost 3/4 of my hard
drive to said virus.  Therefore, I tend to take things like this rather
seriously.

The way that I glean how that happened, that you opened the said e-mail and
the virus struck, ne?

Well, if that is what happened, then you most likely did NOT get that virus
from the e-mail message. Y'see, viruses usually have a delay between the
initial infection and when the damaging code strikes. That way, the virus
has a chance to spread to other machines. The delay between initial
infection and terminal destruction can be as long as a few weeks or even
years! In other words, James, you were _already_ infected with a virus and
it chose that moment to do it's dirty work. The e-mail had nothing to do
with it.

It was either that, or it was another, more likely reason why you lost 3/4
of your hard disk. The same thing happened to someone on this ML. Namely,
the computer _crashed_, which if the computer was in the middle of a disk
operation, might fuck up your FAT file so badly that your OS has a case of
amnesia. In this case, your data is as good as gone.



                           ---------------------
##   ## ##   ## #######  ##   ##  AKA Tom Jefferys, Time Lord for Hire
##   ##  #   #   ##   ## ### ###    "Have TARDIS; Will Travel."
## # ##   ###    #####   ## # ##  Wielder of ANVIL and SPAM! Breaking
### ###    #     ##  ##  ##   ##    the Rules of Fanfiction!
##   ##   ###   ###   ## ##   ## of UT      <wyrm@mail.utexas.edu>
Save the Bit Trees -- Conserve SPAM!         When in Rome...BURN IT!!!
                   Darwin was wrong: Man is still an ape!