The following text is comments we have heard that are absolutely not true or are false spreading rumors.

"If I download a file onto a disk I don't have to worry about a viruses." - This is not true, just because you place a file on a disk does not mean that your hard drive cannot be infected. Because around half of the computer viruses are memory resident the virus will load itself into memory and will then infect your hard drive and data on the diskette.

"If I buy sealed software I don't have to worry about viruses." - This is not always true just because the program may be surrounded in plastic doesn't mean that it cannot be infected with a virus. When the software is written to the diskette is when the virus will be attached to the diskette. While this does not happen frequently it is still a possibility.

"If I just by registered software I don't have to worry about viruses." - This is not always true because there have been cases were company's did not know that there was a virus on there software and accidentally shipped software that had viruses on it. While this does not happen frequently it is still a possibility.

"If I don't download anything off of the Internet I don't have to worry about viruses." - This is not always true while you may not be on the Internet you still can be infected by viruses on diskettes and or CDs.

"If I just read my E-mail, I will not have to worry about viruses." - Not true there are viruses out there that are distributed through e-mail also files can be attached with e-mail.

"If I don't get on the Internet I don't have to worry about viruses." - This unfortunately is not the case over 90% of users contract viruses with floppy diskettes the other percentage is over the Internet.

"You can contact viruses from just looking at web pages." - Another rumor that is spreading around. You cannot contract a virus just by looking at a web page however can contact a virus if you were to download a file from that web page.

"You can contact a virus by reading your e-mail." - Not fully true, by just opening an e-mail message to read its contents you can not contract a virus, unless that e-mail message contains an attachment and you were to save that attachment to your hard drive or another storage media. Our recommendation to help prevent virus through e-mail would be to not open files that contain attachments from individuals you do not trust / know. Extra Note: A new virus called the Bubble boy can infect computers by a user just opening their mail however requires the user be using Internet Explorer 5.0, Windows 98, and Microsoft Outlook.