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On 14/09/2017 12:10, Neil wrote: > Yesterday evening I happened to catch part of a TV program that I don't > normally watch, Rip-Off Britain. This particular section had the story > of a woman who got caught out through an email. > > She received an email which she did not recognise. After some hesitation > she opened it, realised it was not for her and closed it down. She > thought nothing more about it until the following morning when she saw > the usual demand for money on her computer screen. > > To finish the story, she did not pay, but found some company which > specialises in sorting out these problems. In the end she got back > almost all of her personal files. (Back up? What's that?). > > This got me thinking. Up to now I have thought that any email containing > malware would not cause any trouble unless you actually clicked on an > attachment. Just opening the email was safe. Obviously I was wrong. > > I suppose this malware was written for Windows. I also think that, > should I be silly/unlucky enough to open up such an email, the malware > would not run on my computer, wrong OS. Perhaps I am mistaken again. > > Could some one on the list please clarify this for me, and others? It > would appear that at least some of my ideas on this are wrong. Just how > safe is Linux? > > Regards, > > Neil > Any operating system is unsafe against attacks designed for it. The first virus attacked Mac OS. (Unix/BSD/ Linux type OS) Opening a malformed* web site or malformed* email can load malware. Malformed* is here meaning 'designed to do harm' Attaching a USB stick to a computer without opening the USB stick can infect computer and network (Think attack on Iranian OSs controlling centrifuges.) Linux (desktop single users) because it is not so popular has a smaller number of attacks than popular Windows OS, But industrial attacks on servers controlling machinery (as Linux is often used for industrial networks) is high in exploits against industry. -- Regards Eion MacDonald . -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG https://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq