Psst... Don't Pass It On
Protect yourself and your friends against email hoaxes and viruses.
By Nini Diana
When you were a kid, did you really send out ten letters to everyone including a dollar or some other token? Who was the recipient of all that chain mail? Who was the person in the letter, the one who received a million dollars just days later?
Those were the terms of a chain letter circa 1986, when people still sent real mail. Today, thousands of chain emails clog computer systems all over the world—and nobody to date has received a million dollars.
While chain emails are the less dangerous of the Internet demons, they are no less
Break the Chain
email address books. Polymorphic viruses work like HIV, attacking a system and mutating with each new infection. The worldwide damage estimate of I LOVE YOU? $6.7 billion of unrecoverable business time.
The news in worse for Windows $ ^{ \textcircled{1}} $ users, since MS Outlook seems to be the target of these programs. To date there's no evidence that they can seriously damage Macs or Lotus Notes. Microsoft started working on anti-virus software immediately, which can now be downloaded at officeupdate.
The worldwide damage estimate of I LOVE YOU? $6.7 billion of unrecoverable business time.
annoying in their potential to muck up network systems everywhere.
The Computer Incident Advisory Capability (www.ciac.org), a division of the Department of Energy, lists many known hoaxes to check out, including the Bill Gates/$1000 scam and the kidney harvest warning (my personal favorite). Other sites, including About.com (search for "email hoaxes"), offer tips on how to spot and avoid hoaxes, and what you should do in the event you receive one.
General warnings to heed:
Keep away from files with the extensions .vbs, .exe, .com, and .js. Also, go to the sites of some of the top antivirus companies: symantec.com and mcafee.com for ways to protect yourself.
Viral Infection
We can laugh off a silly email, but it's hard to ignore when it comes with a fatal attachment. In May of 2000, computers in the United States and abroad were attacked by the I LOVE YOU virus, a nasty little polymorphic program that replicated itself through
microsoft.com, but even that comes with its own set of problems. The new security lets users select the attachments they'll accept alerts users of suspicious attachments, and changes the security restrictions on Outlook.
Releasing the Bug
So who writes these viruses? Mostly college and high school students looking for attention or testing out a new prank. Despite the ramifications of a virus like I LOVE YOU, there's very little legal recourse. The legislation dates back to the Computer Abuse Act of 1984, which covers unauthorized access to computer systems. The alleged author of I LOVE YOU, Onel A. de Guzman of the Philippines, says he may have accidentally released the virus. In any case, he can't (yet) be extradited to the United States for prosecution, and the Philippines doesn't have any computer-specific laws. Most experts say that legislation won't stop hackers anyway. Industries have to commit to tightening security.
But security is only as good as the next hacker. One virus dubbed Timofonica, originating in Spain, threatened cell phones and hand-held devices like the Palm Pilot. Any wireless connection has the potential of bringing an infection to the device via downloads. Symantec reports that they are working on anti-virus software for the Palm operating system.
Cooking 101
By Genevieve C. Rajewski
Not everyone dines in splendor at the dining hall, or sneaks out for a late-night run to Burger Bonanza. Some of you can cook-supposing that you actually had the time. There's help online to make the most of those culinary skills. At sites like allrecipes.com (allrecipes.com) and Student Recipes (yumyum.com/student), you'll find many recipes for tasty, budget-conscious meals that can be prepared quickly.
Cooking.com (cooking.com/advice) and Epicurious (epicurious.com/run/food dictionary) answer questions about ingredients, equipment and techniques.
Several basics belong in everyone's kitchen Geri Harrington, author The College Cookbook,
At sites like allrecipes.com and StudentRecipes.com, you'll find recipes for tasty, budget-conscious meals that can be prepared quickly
recommends a medium-sized frying pan and two covered saucepans (large and small), and a medium-sized baking pan. Purchase the heaviest, best-made pans available.
A few other small appliances can make life easier. A crock pot slow-cooks meals while you're at class.Add the ingredients for a soup, stew or chili—when you return, dinner is made. Also useful is a hot pot for boiling water for tea, oatmeal or Ramen noodles.
You can learn which seasonings are compatible with which foods at Epicurious. Cooking oil is another indispensable item; olive oil offers the best flavor and health benefits. You also might want to stock up on canned goods at EthnicGrocer.com (ethnic grocer.com) or NetGrocer (netgrocer.com).
You can find coupons at Coupon Corner (home.flash.net/stross/coupon.htm) and ValuPage (valupage.com). $ \cdot $
Links
The Dorm Food Nightmare seasoned.com/issues/199808/f.df.sp.html
Easy Cooking for College Students garnet.acns.fsu.edu/~ehc5091/index.html
The Survival Guide for College Students skippublishing.com/Recipes.html
Student Recipes yumyum.com/student
steamtunnels.net
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