How you can prevent email related threats

You probably receive lots of mail each day, much of it unsolicited and containing unfamiliar but plausible return addresses. Some of this mail uses social engineering to tell you of a contest that you may have won or the details of a product that you might like. The senders are trying to encourage you to open the letter, read its contents, and interact with them in some way that is financially beneficial - to them. Even today, many of us open letters to learn what we've won or what fantastic deal awaits us. Since there are few consequences, there's no harm in opening them.

Email-borne viruses and worms operate much the same way, except there are consequences, sometimes-significant ones. Malicious email often contains a return address of someone we know and often has a provocative Subject line. This is social engineering at its finest – something we want to read from someone we know.

Email viruses and worms are common. If you've not received one, chances are you will. Here are steps you can use to help you decide what to do with every email message with an attachment that you receive. You should only read a message that passes all of these tests.
The Know test: Is the email from someone that you know?
The Received test: Have you received email from this sender before?
The Expect test: Were you expecting email with an attachment from this sender?
The Sense test: Does email from the sender with the contents as described in the Subject line and the name of the attachment(s) make sense? For example, would you expect the sender – let's say your Mother – to send you an email message with the Subject line "Here you have, ;o)" that contains a message with attachment – let's say AnnaKournikova.jpg.vbs? A message like that probably doesn't make sense. In fact, it happens to be an instance of the Anna Kournikova worm, and reading it can damage your system.
The Virus test: Does this email contain a virus? To determine this, you need to install and use an anti-virus program. That task is described in Task 1 - Install and Use Anti-Virus Programs of "Home Computer Security."
You should apply these five tests – KRESV – to every piece of email with an attachment that you receive. If any test fails, toss that email. If they all pass, then you still need to exercise care and watch for unexpected results as you read it.