Stealth Email

Spam or junk mail is becoming a serious problem of Internet users today. Spam is defined by some as an unsolicited email that is sent to various email addresses in bulk. A spam usually contains email that advertises a certain product. It becomes a problem when every time you open your email account, there is always a spam to greet you. For many, a spam is a major nuisance because it really eats up a lot of their time. Aside from this, it also consumes a lot of network bandwidth. If one heavily relies on the Internet in running a business, spam email can cause a serious problem with the network because some spam emails contain viruses and forms of spyware.

Ways to get rid of spam

Because of the nuisance caused by spam, it’s important that you know how to prevent it. One way is to create a separate email account that one would be using for friends and family and another email account for unfamiliar sources. The email application’s spam filtering features can also be used to avoid spam emails. Upon receiving an unfamiliar email, you can activate the filtering features to stop receiving another email from that particular sender. The third way to get rid of spam email is by identifying the origin of the spam email and reporting it to the Internet Service Provider or ISP.

Getting rid of spam email can really make web surfing hassle free and efficient. It can also lessen the chance of virus and spyware infection.

When a computer starts to run poorly or inefficiently, people would almost always have an assumption that it is caused by a virus. A virus may be a malicious program, but it is not the only malicious program that is capable of damaging the computer. For all you know, the culprit behind your computer’s poor performance is a Trojan horse.

Installing the payload

A Trojan horse installs an application called payload: the program responsible for doing something malicious not only to your email account, but also to your computer system. To prevent you from getting too suspicious of the planned attack, a payload usually disguises itself as a simple onscreen display. Soon after, it will illegally access your accounts and illicitly control your computer: to infect files, to threaten security, and to delete programs.

Damaging the system

The main function of a Trojan horse is simple: to damage the computer system. The kind of damage it does to the computer system, however, varies. The immediate deletion and overwriting of files are very common as well as the unauthorized uploading and downloading of files. Some types of Trojan horse even restart or shut off the computer spontaneously. Other malicious effects of a Trojan horse to your computer system include corrupting files, encrypting files, deactivate firewalls, displaying porn, harvesting addresses, installing backdoors, logging keystrokes, making screenshots, playing music, sending spam, and spreading malware. Its worst effect? It slows down your computer.

Removing the malware

The harmful effects of a Trojan horse, as mentioned earlier, may vary. The manner by which it can be removed, therefore, also varies. Many antivirus software and anti-malware programs are capable of automatically removing a Trojan horse from your system. Some advanced anti-spyware program are also capable of deleting a Trojan horse. If all else fails, then formatting your computer might be the only option.

As far as email viruses go, the ILOVEYOU virus is probably the most popular. Dubbed as the “Love Bug,” the ILOVEYOU virus invaded the computer world by spreading “love virus” to a number of computer systems all over the world. Some people even thought that it was the aftershock of the Y2K bug that caused glitches in several computer systems at the beginning of the new millennium. Although it was proven to be independent from the Y2K bug, the ILOVEYOU virus caused a technological havoc that kept the entire virtual world on its toes.

Opening the ILOVEYOU attachment

The ILOVEYOU email contains an attachment that is labeled LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT.vbs. Upon the activation of the said attachment, the virus automatically forwards the ILOVEYOU email to everybody on your address list. What’s worse is that the forwarded emails will all bear your name as the sender.

Replacing the system files

The effects of the ILOVEYOU virus are not limited to the involuntary forwarding of virus emails to everybody on your address list. In fact, when you open the ILOVEYOU virus attachment, the virus will automatically search the hard drive of your computer and will replace all MP3, JPEG, JPG, and DOC files with copies of itself bearing the .VBS extension.

Downloading the Trojan Horse

Another harmful effect of opening the ILOVEYOU virus attachment is that the virus downloads a Trojan Horse called WIN-BUGSFIX.exe from a certain website hosted by Sky Internet, a Philippine Internet service provider. The downloaded Trojan Horse then invades your computer system by collecting all your usernames and passwords and sends them to mailme@super.net.ph, the email address of the notorious author of the ILOVEYOU virus.

There may be times when sending an anonymous email is more appropriate than sending one from your own personal email. There are many reasons for hiding your identity from the person you want to send an email to. Perhaps you’re just shy about revealing yourself, or it might be that you want to share some sensitive information that you don’t want the recipient to know that it came from you. In case you’d rather not reveal your identity when sending emails, then you should definitely consider using an anonymous email service.

Reasons for using an anonymous email service

* Sending emails through an anonymous email service can help you protect your identity when reporting fraud to an institution. In cases such as this, sending the information via your personal mail can have you labeled as a whistleblower and can even lead to serious repercussions. Choosing to send the information via an anonymous email service can help you avoid the adverse consequences that can result from divulging such sensitive information.
* You can use an anonymous email service to keep your personal email address private when sending feedback to a website or blogger. When you use an anonymous email service to send emails, you can be sure that other users won’t get your personal email address and send you various marketing promotions, offers, or spam.

To make sure that the message you’re sending is really protected, you can encrypt it first before sending it via an anonymous email service. Encrypting the message gives you the assurance that anyone who runs the anonymous email service is not reading your email and isn’t privy to any information that you put in your message.