Session 2 - Cyber Crap
Question:
John was checking his email one day, and he saw this particular one, which was sent to him from someone he did not know. The subject of the email sounded urgent, so instead of deleting it, John clicked on it to read it.
Subject: 81 feared dead from swine flu in Mexico.
I sent this email to you with a very heavy heart. I’m sure you have heard of the recent swine flu outbreak. Novel influenza A (H1N1) is a new flu virus of swine origin that was first detected in April, 2009. The virus is infecting people and is spreading from person-to-person, and has sparked a growing outbreak of illness in the United States with an increasing number of cases being reported internationally as well.To date, A/H1N1 flu has killed 337 people in 121 nations and regions and the number of the total infected exceeded 80,000, a top official of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday. There are already 1003 cases in Singapore, a country known for its stringent health measures.Just FYI, in 1918, there was flu pandemic -commonly known as the Spanish flu- which was caused by an unusually severe and deadly Influenza A virus strain of subtype H1N1, claimed the lives of 50-100 million people. Researchers are speculating if the one that is ongoing will have that high number of death tolls, that is, if the pandemic persists.I’ve attached a file on how to protect yourself during this period of outbreak. I sincerely urged you to take a look at it, so that you can take the said preventive measures. You are not only protecting yourself, but also the people around you.My cousin, who lives in Mexico, introduced me to a type of medicine that is said to work effectively. I’ve also given you the link in the file attachment. I strongly encourage you to purchase the medicine, as I have also purchased it myself.
Yours sincerely,
Max Wilkertin.
Now, what should John do? Should he open the file attachment? Should he buy the medicine?
Answer:
No! John should not open the file attachment. The file attachment may contain a virus or a programme that is able to suck out all the information from his computer. If John's computer contains all his important and private documents and the programme allows the other person (unknown person who started the chain mail) at the other side to view all his private documents, that other person could cause a huge damage to John. And if John continues to send the e-mail to all of his contacts, the virus could just pass from one person to ten person and then to hundreds and thousand and millions of people. John should also not buy the medicine. If the medicine was real and it is really effective towards prevention of swine flu, doctors would have said it and it would be posted on the daily newspapers.