I got an email with {VIRUS?} in the subject, what does it mean? Print

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Email for your domain passes through our servers - when it does, we scan any HTML emails and attachments with a commercial quality virus scanner. Our virus definitions are updated daily.

Occasionally, we find viruses in emails for you - if this happens, we try to disinfect the email and pass the cleaned email on to you. Sometimes, we are not able to clean the attachment - in this case, it will be removed and the rest of the email sent on to you. If we find any viruses, or evidence that a virus might have been attached, we will change the subject of the email to include {VIRUS?} in the start of the subject, and attach a text file with the details of any actions taken by our virus scanner.

If you get a virus warning - open the attached text file for information on what to do. We strongly suggest contacting the person who sent the virus, warning them that they appear to be infected. Ask them to send a clean copy of the attachment to you!

Most viruses passing through our systems are automatically trying to infect other computers - when we get a particularly virulent strain of a computer virus, we might choose to delete the virus without notifying you. These do not happen very often, and ONLY in the case of viruses which can not infect files you might expect to receive.

If you are sure that a file does NOT contain a virus, it's name might be to blame. If you include TWO periods in the filename (such as: screensaver.cool.scr) we will block the file from passing through. It is NOT valid to have two periods in the filename as far as windows is concerned, and it is a technique used by viruses to hide themselves.

If you absolutely must get a file, have the sender ZIP archive the file (use a zip filename WITHOUT two periods) and have them send the file again. If this proves troublesome, we suggest using an email address to receive the file which does NOT go through our servers - this will prevent the problem at all.


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