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Computing Q&A

Bogus Virus Messages

There has been a number of viruses that have surfaced in the last year that has made everyone's life complicated, especially system administrators. The viruses masquerade themselves using random From: addresses so that it has a greater chance of spreading. However, this has also made those who protect their email servers "bounce" the email back to the From: address which is not the original person who sent the virus. Please keep reading for a detailed explanation:

Below is an image to help understand how the virus alert you received was sent to you even though your computer did not send the email in the first place.

Note that John Doe is in Texas and has an email address of jdoe@texas.com who has no affiliation with PCOM. His PC is infected with a virus which sends out emails using various other from addresses including user@pacificcollege.edu. When the virus is sent to hundreds and thousands of email addresses such as an address like user@yahoo.com, the Yahoo email servers that protects their email accounts from viruses will reject the email and send the alert to the person who sent the virus. Unfortunately Yahoo can only send the rejected email back to the From: address listed in the email which happens to be user@pacificcollege.edu. This is why you receive emails that say you sent a virus that was not accepted on their server.

PCOM servers are not only very secure, they are also Macintosh servers that are not capable of being infected with a virus as 99.9% of the wild viruses can only infect a Windows PC and not a Macintosh. We are also blocking all attachments that are known to carry viruses which are Windows files that end with .exe, .lnk, .com, .pif, .scr, .vbs, .cmd, .zip, .rar, .hta, .bat, .cpl, etc., etc.. Additionally, 80%-90% of PCOM computers are Macintoshes that cannot transmit or carry PC viruses. Rest assured that viruses that you may be getting on your home computer or email alerts that you have a virus did not originate or transmit through any PCOM computers or servers.