Two reasons, one is the size they usually occupy when converted to
text for sending via email, the other is the possibility of it
spreading a VIRUS !!
A VIRUS is a computer program that can do damage or mischief to
your computer. They are spread around (just like human viruses)
by contact. If someone runs a program with a virus then it
affects the operating system of the machine and anything run
on that machine is liable to be infected.
However, you can prevent problems by following these simple
rules :-
It is IMPOSSIBLE to get a virus by just READING an email.
You get a virus ONLY by running a program. This is usually
done by ...
- An email attachment which you USE (run the program or command file)
- A program or document that you've downloaded from the
internet (or local network) and run without checking first
- A program loaded from a disk that somebody's given you.
Although that's the way they're often shipped you should have things
set up so that any email attachments are SAVED to disk rather that
run/used directly from the email. I know it's faster/neater to use a
program/document directly from an email but that's EXACTLY what
the virus writer depends on - your laziness.
You can then do a virus check on them and only if they pass that you
can use them safely. Similarly, every program (or document) that you
download from the internet or from a disk should be virus checked
BEFORE you run it.
Because virus writers are sneaky (and many other adjectives) you should
also save to disk & check before running any WORD document or
SPREADSHEET because even these can have a virus attached (via a
macro).
Finally, always keep your virus checking software up to date. New viruses
appear quite regularly. But remember that the virus writers are always
one step ahead of the checkers, but it's very unlikely that you'll
be one of the first people targetted.
Of course the other way to defeat them is to throw away all that Micro$oft
rubbish that makes it so easy for the Virus writer in the first place :)
There's a bulletin at
http://www.mcafee.com
which lists all known viruses - and even the hoax ones.
Hoax viruses cause almost as much alarm as the real thing.
You can also check
http://www.cert.org.
