One finds sometimes in the forums or his electronic mail of the worrying warnings describing the devastations caused by a new virus which would circulate on the servers of malls or news. This virus would have the capacity to act with the only reading of the message which conveys it. Of course, the warning advises to transmit information to the maximum of Net surfers. And finally, if there is propagation well, it is not virus, but of the warning itself, relayed by credulous users but in good faith wouldn't the most dangerous virus for a computer be it not before all its user? cqfd Such false alarms - in English hoaxes (hoaxes) - reappear recurringly on the Internet. " the new " viruses have as names " Penpal ", " Join The Crew ", " Win has holiday"... without forgetting the fulfnbk.exe!........ You will find the list of these hoaxes and the precise details on each one of them on the site " >
http://www.hoaxbuster.com These hoaxes put aside, can one infect his computer by traversing the Internet? Let us recall that to date, a virus can infect only one executable file (exe, COM, DLL...) or a document associated with a macro-command (macro-virus of Word). The Web: A Web page cannot contain a virus to be strictly accurate. On the other hand, a malintentionné or simply awkward author can include in his page an applet or a devastating script. That goes seldom further that a blocking from the system. Even if it is not pleasant, the risks remain limited. It is possible to prohibit the execution of scripts and applet by choosing a level of security raised for its navigator. But more and more of pages calling upon active controls, that will be done at the expense of a convenient navigation. Electronic mail and newsgroups: If the messages are with the format text (case more running): the message cannot contain a virus to be strictly accurate; however, any executable file attached to the message is likely to be infected. Prevention: not to directly open the attached files; to always choose the option " to record on the disc " and to control the integrity of the file using an anti-virus good. If the messages are with format HTML (not recommended by the netiquette for the newsgroups, usable for the mail if the software of mail of the recipient accepts this format): the risks are the same ones as for navigation on the Web, therefore limited enough. That concerns only the users of software of last generation. But even with those, it is always possible to prohibit the loading of the messages in HTML