[nagdu] list safety

[Julie J]

Hello all!

Recently there have been  messages with suspicious links in them.  A few weeks ago there was the issue with spoof email.  So I thought I'd take a moment to make some suggestions.

Minimize sending and opening attachments.  Never open an attachment that you have no idea what it is or who sent it.    FYI I only extremely rarely open attachments sent to lists.

The NAGDU list does allow attachments.  I ask that you announce the attachment in the body of the message and explain what is in it.  

Keep your anti virus, spyware, firewall etc software up to date.  That still doesn't guarantee 100% safety, but it goes a long, long way.  The local computer repair store charges $100 to remove viruses.  I just spent about that  amount for three years of anti virus protection for my son's computer.  You do the math.

Do not open links sent in email from people you don't know.  
Generally people introduce themselves if they are new to the list.  If you don't know who the sender is and the message came from the NAGDU list, ask.

Use caution with email that has strange subject lines or no subject.  
Please use subject lines when sending messages to the NAGDU list.  More people will know what your talking about, feel better about opening the message and it's just good netiquette.

If the only thing in an email is a link, use extreme caution.  
I extremely rarely open these.  Again if you're sending a link to the list, please let us know what it is.  

If the link looks odd, don't open it.  Generally speaking links will be a business name or short description of the type of service, followed by .com .net .org .biz .edu or .gov   Sometimes there is a two letter extension that indicates the country.  Use extreme caution if you don't recognize it!

HTH
Julie
NAGDU list moderator