Viruses and the forum - PLEASE READ
PostPosted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 5:38 pm
Hello, Hallo, Bonjour, Alloah!
Following a recent false alert, I just would like to say a few words about viruses and in particular viruses which "could" be related to this forum.
First of all: It is extremely unlikely that you will ever get a virus simply while reading this forum.
There are a few simple reasons for this: There are no adds on this forum and all the banners are carefully controlled. The potential for someone to implement some active scripts in a post is very limited (at worse someone could put a dodgy link in a post I suppose).
Also you have to be registered to post here and all new users are carefully monitored: You may not realise that but this is carried out by the mods on a daily basis!
This said nothing is ever impossible and it doesn't mean that you should throw away your anti viruses prgrams.
So in the extreme case where you think you got a virus while reading this forum, please help us to identify the threat quickly and accurately:
- Make a note of the page you were on at the time when your virus checker identified a threat. The easiest way to do this is to copy the URL in the address bar.
- Please check if a mod is online at the time and send him/her a pm with the address of the post concerned.
- If a mod is not online at the time, please do not pm any mod just randomly: Post in this section, either under this thread of in a new topic: The next mod to come online will see your post within seconds and will be able to take the relevant action. Also by doing that you will warn other users not read that posts.
The quickest mod under the sun will then remove the relevant post.
Now at this point I must clarify:
We have had NO VIRUSES on this forum so far and the last alert was a FALSE ALARM.
You are (unfortunately) much more likely to get a virus through either emails, downloading infected files or visiting web sites which hosts malware.
Spyware may also access and download viruses from a website in the background while you are doing something completely different at the time: So keep both your anti viruses and anti spyware up to date (see the other post about anti spyware).
If you need more info about viruses, check out the following page:
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407
Cheers,
David
Following a recent false alert, I just would like to say a few words about viruses and in particular viruses which "could" be related to this forum.
First of all: It is extremely unlikely that you will ever get a virus simply while reading this forum.
There are a few simple reasons for this: There are no adds on this forum and all the banners are carefully controlled. The potential for someone to implement some active scripts in a post is very limited (at worse someone could put a dodgy link in a post I suppose).
Also you have to be registered to post here and all new users are carefully monitored: You may not realise that but this is carried out by the mods on a daily basis!
This said nothing is ever impossible and it doesn't mean that you should throw away your anti viruses prgrams.
So in the extreme case where you think you got a virus while reading this forum, please help us to identify the threat quickly and accurately:
- Make a note of the page you were on at the time when your virus checker identified a threat. The easiest way to do this is to copy the URL in the address bar.
- Please check if a mod is online at the time and send him/her a pm with the address of the post concerned.
- If a mod is not online at the time, please do not pm any mod just randomly: Post in this section, either under this thread of in a new topic: The next mod to come online will see your post within seconds and will be able to take the relevant action. Also by doing that you will warn other users not read that posts.
The quickest mod under the sun will then remove the relevant post.
Now at this point I must clarify:
We have had NO VIRUSES on this forum so far and the last alert was a FALSE ALARM.
You are (unfortunately) much more likely to get a virus through either emails, downloading infected files or visiting web sites which hosts malware.
Spyware may also access and download viruses from a website in the background while you are doing something completely different at the time: So keep both your anti viruses and anti spyware up to date (see the other post about anti spyware).
If you need more info about viruses, check out the following page:
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407
Cheers,
David