Dear Friend,

Thanks for your message.

I have included a simple process to follow when you receive a virus warning by email, like the one you just sent to me (and before you send it to you all your friends).

I send this because I have had several close friends spend days recovering both from false warnings as well as actual virus attacks. (They have had the best virus protection money could buy.)

The process is as follows:

1. Update your own computer's virus software.
   
   
2. If your newly updated software discovers that you have a "new" virus, use the method suggested by your software to remove it.
   
   
3. Check to ensure that the warning you received is legitimate - check a couple virus protection companies' web sites to ensure that the virus you have been warned about actually exists! If no one has reported it, 2 situations may exist - (1) it is a new virus, and should be reported; or (2) it is a hoax, and the warning is wasting your time and the resources used to send it to you.
   
   
4. If the virus is not recognized by your protection software's database, then you should report it to them (hopefully by phone, or via their own site [typically a protected reporting method])! (Don't forget to check to see if it is a previously reported hoax.) Wait for their response before proceeding.
   
   
5. If it is a hoax, please send a polite message like this to the person who forwarded the warning to you. The message might contain a process like this one, to ensure that they are trained for the next time they consider sending a virus warning to everyone in their email directory. Sending false warnings to everyone you know is not only inefficient in terms of time (for everyone involved) but headache and heartache as well.
   
   
6. If the warning is true and the person who sent it to you also happened to be infected -- now you're infected! AND your virus protection software / company can't help you (the virus is too new to be fixable) (remember that you have your virus protection company's best efforts already, from step 1). Say good-bye to your system / data / time, until the virus is removed and your system / programs / data are restored.
   
   
7. If the warning is true and the person who sent it to you was not infected, you can warn others. The best method to do this is to give them a phone call or send them a fax (don't use a method that might possibly infect them, ie. email). This eliminates the possibility that you can spread the virus to your friends/customers. Calling your friends and customers typically strengthens your relationships. Calling your competitors may create new friends or strategic relationships where none existed before.
   
   
8. This brings up a good point -- do you have a recent system backup? How much information are you prepared to lose if it is destroyed by a virus? Is it off-site? off-disk? off-network? Have you tested it to ensure that you can recover your work? How many months/weeks/days/hours of work will you need to resurrect your operating system, programs, and data from a backup?