Some easy advice concerning viruses - (Not Game related)

mepbmlist
#1

Hi,

We have not suffered at the hands of the Killer from Manilla or clones, but
here is some advice.

You probably know that emails themselves cannot hurt you, but clicking on
attachments can be risky if they are actually programs. The following advice
may help if you are running Windows.

Go into Windows Explorer, select view>options>file types

a.) Make sure you are not hiding MS-DOS file extensions for file types that
are registered (Windows actually defaults to this box as ticked)
b.) consider removing the .VBD file association. The Killer used this.
However - don't do this if you use VBD file yourself (in which case you
probably understand all this anyway)

Best advice of all:

Back Up!!!

If anyone actually has better advice, please share it, but title your email
appropriately so the players can ignore the non-game emails.

Sam

···

****************************************************
                  Harlequin Games

       mailto: pbm@harlequingames.com
            www.harlequingames.com
       Middle Earth - Legends- Serim Ral
    CTF 2187 - Starquest - Crack of Doom
            Battle of the Planets - Exile
****************************************************
340 North Road, Cardiff CF14 3BP
Tel 029 2062 5665 12-6.30 Weekdays
Fax 029 2062 5532 24 hours

#2

Hi,

re: Killer from Manilla

Sam suggested...

Best advice of all:
Back Up!!!

Or consider changing your software. The vast majority of viruses are
created with the assumption that you are using Microsoft products.
Whilst I would certainly recommend looking at non-Microsoft systems
(simply don't run Microsoft Outlook Express), you can also protect
yourself by changing some of the default settings. For instance change
the name of the default folders (the ones where files are automatically
saved). Even small changes can help.

Theres a rather useful program which may be available from the Microsft
site (or it's on the Widows 98 CD), it's essentially a utility program
called "Tweakui" which you can use to tweak your system settings - the
by product of this will help to defeat viruses which are looking for a
standard set-up.

It's worth noting that Macintoshes are on the whole not affected by
these viruses. The majority of new viruses are written in Visual Basic,
and VB won't run on a Mac!

Colin.