Don’t Be Fooled by Internet E-Mail Viruses this April First

April Fools' Day is one of the prime dates that virus writers target for their un-merry email pranks.  The last deadly April Fools’ virus arrived in user's in boxes as an attachment in 2005, and went by the aliases W32.Aprilcone.A@mm, W32/Dushit@MM.  Once opened the worm virus sent the following message to everyone in the user's address book:  I'm sorry to trouble you, but It's useless to say sorry. Happy April Fools' Day :).  Consequently even letters originating from "friends" may contain viruses.

As recently as this past February 13, 2007 the Joke.Norativ virus was discovered, as a message that appeared to originate from "Norton antivirus warning system."  The virus was a manually executed program that opened a warning screen in a user’s computer.  Once the warning was clicked another screen appeared saying : APRIL FOOLS!!!!.  This may be an indication of things to come.

Virus writers don't send out press releases announcing their intentions.  They have taken the fun out of the day by making it too dangerous to open messages.  Unfortunately most user installed spam and virus catchers are only about 60% effective at best, which means it’s even more important that the viruses don’t get past your ISP and to your computer in the first place.

Here's what to look for in potential April Fool's threat emails:

1)     Professional looking communications:  be wary of anything that claims it came from an "official" or "government" authority, bank, credit union or financial institution.

2)     Endorsement from authority:  If you see emails from names you trust, like AOL, PayPal, GM Credit or Bank of America, (among many others)  run the other way. 

3)     Sense of urgency:  Many virus writers try to instill the sense that something bad will happen unless an email is acted upon, opened or a link clicked immediately.

When in doubt trust your gut.  It's easier to avoid trouble by being extra cautious on April Fools' day.  Make sure that your virus definitions are up to date before you open Outlook, or whatever mail service you are using.  IsoTropic uses the-----------Spam Firewall for the mail that we deliver to our customers, which currently blocks approximately 95% of the mail passing through our systems, and greatly reduces your risk of having a virus or Trojan land in your box.