Round Robin

Graham Roberts Home Computer Services

Reputable & reliable computer repairs and servicing for Barlborough, Clowne, Bolsover & surrounding villages.

"Round Robin" Email Threats!

March 5th 2007

It’s not just youngsters who leave our PCs open to virus problems. Some of my older customers are in groups that often use (let’s call it) a “Round Robin” of emails, where downloaded funnies, pictures and goodies are shared and forwarded by all members. That’s a fun way to use a computer and for the most part not a problem if it’s just normal text and not an attachment or a link from an unknown website.

But if just one originator of an email in your group has out of date antivirus on their PC and has unknowingly downloaded and attached an infected file or visited and sent out a link to a rogue website, all members of the "Round Robin Club" could have a problem. Even those who have up to date good quality Antivirus and Firewall program’s installed on their PCs could be affected.

That is because the members of the group who’s PCs are not are not fully protected may unknowingly “catch” from the email or link something called a “worm”. A worm is a self-replicating computer program, similar to a virus. They are often designed to exploit email programs and the danger here is that some types of worm can access email address books and emails stored on the computers of your unprotected friends. Once it’s got the information, the program can send out hundreds of messages a day from your friend’s computer using your email plus the other group member’s and any other contacts they have in their email address books. And if they are on broadband, there’s every chance that they will be blissfully unaware of the problem.

The first time that you will know that theirs is a problem is when you start getting increased spam or rejected mails and replies from people and businesses that you’ve never heard of or contacted. This will carry on as long as any member of the group has not up to date internet security on their PC. In some cases, it can spread outside the group (due to emails being forwarded) and then it becomes almost an impossible task to track it and stop it and the only answer is to get a new email.

So what should you do if you are a member of a Round Robin club and feel they may be a problem?

My recommendations are…

Tell every member about this potential problem or send them a link to my website so that they can read it for themselves.

Advise them that they must have an up to date antivirus and firewall programs running on their PCs. Very often, I come across new customers who think their PC is protected by the virus program that came with their PC 2 or 3 earlier. It won’t be and Antivirus program subscriptions normally need to be renewed annually.

For anybody who's security is not up top date, go online on broadband, then close all the web pages, email and other programs but keep the connection connected. Look at the data light, (the one on your modem or router that flashes when you're surfing the net) for a few minutes. If it's continues to flicker, first make sure that none of your programs are updating by leaving it and check again 15 minutes later. If it's still flickering on and off, you may be the source of the infection. Try doing a full system scan with your antivirus program to see if it can detect a problem.

On old style dial up, worm infection is more noticeable as it will considerably stow down your internet connection as it sends out the "spam" mail and may keep trying to connect you to the internet all the time. It may be less of a nuisance to others as the connection is not always on (like broadband often is), but if you get these symptoms on your PC, you could have a problem so again do a full system scan with your antivirus program to see if it can detect a problem.

If you’re not 100% sure about anybody’s internet security status, think long and hard before opening an attachment from them.

If you start getting emails excessive emails, in particular replies or rejections form unknown sources, then contact everybody in your group and make them aware that there may be a problem and need to make sure their PCs are up to date and suggest stopping sending out emails to the group for a while.

If you continue getting excessive rejected emails and spam, the only answer could be to ask your supplier for a new email address.

Graham

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