Division 7 - District 7 

VIRUS ALERT!

The Coast Guard Auxiliary has thousands of Internet users whose email addresses are freely available to other Auxiliarists. With all of our email communications busily crossing cyberspace daily, we've been receiving hundreds of virus-infected emails from people who have us in their address books.

This does not get spread to you from any of our flotilla's mailing lists, because we use multiple layers of anti-virus protection set up by the CS officer. However, it does affect our server by slowing down email delivery.

IS YOUR COMPUTER INFECTED?
ARE YOU CONTRIBUTING TO THE PROBLEM?

Watch out for the following emails! The latest viruses:

• Spread email with links to websites that contain hate content.
• "Notify" you that an email you sent to a series of recipients has bounced or was undeliverable, even though you did no such thing.
• Ask you to verify your email address.
• Notify you that your account has been blocked.

Do NOT reply to any of these emails!   Do not even open them!

Computers that lack updated anti-virus definitions are at the greatest risk of being victimized by these and other viruses. These viruses embed a a mass-mailing worm into your computer and steal email addresses from your address book to distribute itself in multiplying amounts. These addresses are also used to help disguise the worm and promote further infection and confusion.

PLEASE ... PROTECT YOUR COMPUTER!

If you do not yet have anti-virus software, choose from the links below. There is NO reason why anyone should have an unprotected computer, not when free protection is available!

• McAfee has several inexpensive products to secure your computer. This brand is one of the best respected on the market.
• Norton by Symantec is another set of highly reputable, affordable products.
• GriSoft offers a FREE anti-virus software package.
• SpyBot Search & Destroy scan for spyware, adware, hijackers and other malicious software for FREE.
• MailWasher Pro will look inside your mailbox before you run your email program, identify the porn and spam and viruses, and delete it for you -- for a very low price.

Additionally, take these simple precautions:

1. NEVER OPEN AN ATTACHMENT an email UNLESS you are sure you understand what it is and why it's been sent to you. When in doubt, delete. You can always write back to the person who sent it and ask if they intended to send an attachment and to please explain what it was and then resend it. Most viruses are triggered by unwitting victims opening an attachment.
     
2. INSTALL PROTECTION SOFTWARE -- NOW! Once you have it, you will help stop the spread of viruses. If you don't have it, you will sooner or later regret leaving yourself so vulnerable. It is absolutely worth the money spent for it!
        
3. FIND OUT WHAT'S NOT A VIRUS and don't clog up the internet spreading false alarms. When you get word of a virus, take a minute to check it out first, before forwarding the message to others and embarrassing yourself. Here's a great site for this research: urbanlegends.miningco.com/library/blhoax.htm
      
4. BEWARE OF SPIES, HACKERS & KEY LOGGERS!
   There are programs that can spy into your computer and steal your credit card numbers. It happens when people download a program (such as a game) that comes bundled with spyware. It installs itself silently on your computer and then monitors your "clickstream" as you navigate around the web, sending information about your activities back to the originator. If terrorists want to, they can even use this kind of software to breach our national security by obtaining our patrol schedules!
     
5. Always be careful about what you download. Is it from a trustworthy software manufacturer? But since "trust" is only a guess, the best advice is to extend your anti-virus protection to include anti-spyware (to block your personal information from being taken without your permission), anti-hacker-tools (to prevent hijackers from accessing your PC), anti-key-loggers (to safeguard your passwords and other private stuff) and anti-worms (to hack away at hacker tools that can exploit your computer even after they're gone).