We have seen several instances in the last year of viruses transmitted by email attachments. If your email program is set to automatically open all attachments, you are quite vulnerable to such attacks. It's rather like leaving your door unlocked for anyone to put anything in your house that they wish.

Different email programs have different default settings, but those settings can be changed. If your email program is now automatically opening attachments, investigate and try to change the settings. If you can't figure it out, get help. If you still can't figure it out, then it might be a good idea to change to an email program that doesn't automatically open attachments.

One of the common programs that automatically opens attachments is Microsoft Outlook. I have heard that it is possible to change that in Microsoft Outlook but not in Outlook Express.

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Last updated May 7, 2000. Mary Parker