A Mailing List Malware Solution: Plain Text

Do you have problems with mailing list malware? Computer viruses, Trojan horses, and worms (collectively called malware) are bad for computers. They can delete or corrupt files on your hard disk, intercept your bank account password when you log in, or turn your computer into a zombie that is controlled by somebody else remotely.

Not only do you not want malware on your computer, you don’t want to send it to anybody on your list of subscribers either.

Mailing List Malware Spreads Via Email Attachments

Mailing list malware can be spread via email attachments. We have had viruses in PDF’s, MS Word Documents, executable programs, Flash videos, pictures, music, and about any other file type that you can think of. The computer virus scanners currently know about more than 1 million different computer viruses.

It Also Spreads Via HTML Email

HTML email can spread mailing list malware because HTML has a feature that allows small programs to be downloaded and run on your computer. Java, Javascript, and VBscript are examples of languages used in these small programs. When you see rotating graphics, pop-up windows, and other fancy web page effects, it is typically small programs written in these languages that are doing the work. If the program was malware instead, bad things would happen to your computer.

HTML email can also allow linking to websites that contain the malware. The program was not downloaded inside the email but brought in from the remote server. This type of malware is called cross-site scripting.

It Usually Doesn’t Spread through Plain Text Email

Plain text email cannot and never has been used to send a computer virus. So if you only send plain text email, then you will never spread computer malware, even if your own computer is infected. (See other reasons to use plain text email.)

Mail-list.com only sends plain text email but does allow attachments to be included. Our system scans any attachments with two different virus scanners, to ensure that we never ever spread mailing list malware.

For More Resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_virus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie_computer