Self Seekers Newsletter v. 5, no. 4

SELF SEEKERS:

THE SELF FAMILY ASSOCIATION QUARTERLY ONLINE NEWSLETTER SUPPLEMENT

Editors
Tim W. Seawolf Self    
Barbara Ann Peck
   [email protected]
Volume 5, no. 4   October, 2002
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WELCOME

Welcome to the 20th issue of the quarterly online newsletter supplement to "Self Portraits: The Self Family NetLetter," the Website dedicated to Self family research at http://www.selfroots.com

You are receiving this newsletter because you were kind enough to join "Self Seekers: The Self Family Association." We appreciate all of your contributions, large and small, and we hope you will continue to support our page, our surname list, and this newsletter.

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FALL AT LAST!

I guess Autumn is our favorite season. There are so many changes going on, but unlike early springtime, we have cooler temperatures in our future. We sometimes refer to the first days of Fall as "OldSummer" because while the days are still warm and sunny, things look just a little different. The sun rises later and sets earlier, and because it is "at a different angle" in the sky, it catches familiar objects in a "different light." People have claimed that we don't have seasons in Southern California, but we do, and they are very distinct from each other. In fact, we have all the things that characterize fall on the East Coast except that these features occur later. December, for instance, is the month when leaves turn color and descend like tears from the trees. But we don't have to wait very long for new leaves to be born--their buds form in January when the sun is warm and much of our planting takes place. Like the seasons, our family goes on--babies are born and old timers depart from the world. But one thing is certain--you have many cousins, past and present, and many yet to come. We hope that you like this newsletter--and we wish you good luck in your Self research!

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We are so happy to be the largest repository of Self information. With three domains, a second Webpage at RootsWeb, a surname forum and a suite of cluster pages at RootsWeb (see the link on "Self Portraits"), a Listserv, a Collaboration Surname list on the LDS "Family Search" site, well over 5,000 pages of connected and unconnected Self lines, and over 1420 valid e-mail correspondents willing to share information, we are well able to help you with your family research. We are also the Surname Resource Center (SRC) for the surnames of Self, Selfe, and Selph. We also host SelfSite at RootsWeb, an extension of Self Portraits containing our Census pages as well as state-by-state and county-by-county "loose ends," Selfs presently unconnected to any of the major branches. Family Record Online enumerates families presented on our Self Family of the Week page. And each time a new "Self Seekers" newsletter is released, we upload the one for the same month from the past year to our public page for all cousins to enjoy.

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

We would like to have your gedcom so that we can add your information to our database. With your permission, we will also list and distribute your gedcom on request (but only with your permission). Please send us gedcoms so that we can start a library that will help others. If you've already submitted one, kindly re-send so that we will have the latest information. We would appreciate being kept informed of new family members as well as other changes.

If you haven't joined our Self Surname Mailing List yet, please subscribe. Instructions will be found on the main page of our Website. Note that we also host the Swindle, Eden, Edens, Cease, Breeze, Brezee, and Salazar Surname Lists as well as listservs for Erath County, TX., King County, TX., Bossier Parish, LA., Murray County, GA., and Clay County, NC. In addition, we host the King County, TX, Murray County, GA, Union County, GA and Clay County, NC USGenWeb sites. Our four county sites join "Self Portraits" in featuring a handy search engine for locating topics discussed in previous messages posted to their corresponding listserv--please click on the button directly beneath the instructions for joining the listserv on the main page of each site.

SELF SEEKERS MEMBERSHIP FEES

Membership fees remain the same in 2002: Regular Member, $12 and Charter Member, $25. If you are a Patron Member, your initial contribution is gratefully acknowledged and good for the lifetime of the "Self Seekers" association. We're accepting payment for the 2003 membership year now. We want to retain you as a "Self Seekers" member, and you cannot know how much your monetary contributions help keep us going. [Of course, we'll also take kind words along with your donation :-) ] So if you haven't sent your check yet, please do so.

And PLEASE contribute something to this newsletter. Photographs, articles, family trees, and reunion recaps will be gratefully received and enjoyed by everyone--and they will be released to the general public one year after first publication so that they can be shared with all cousins who visit our sites.

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SPAM
by Barbara Peck and Tim Seawolf-Self

What did we do before e-mail?

Communication was slow, time-consuming, and costly. We painfully wrote letters in long-hand or pecked away at the typewriter keys, hoping we wouldn't have to stop to correct a typo. Then we waited a week or more before we got a reply. If the message was urgent, we picked up the phone, all too aware of endless ringing, busy signals, and long-distance charges.

Today we can dash off an informal e-mail message and, if the recipient is sitting at his computer, we can receive a reply in just a few minutes. We can correspond with friends around the globe as quickly and easily as we can write a memo to our co-worker down the hall. We have the best of all worlds...

Except for SPAM...

WHAT IS SPAM?

SPAM--so named (for some obscure reason) after a 1970 Monty Python skit in which the real meat product is included in every dish on a restaurant's menu--is best defined as "unsolicited commercial e-mail." While this term is not intended to include invitations to free sites such as ours or queries from an unknown possible cousin, it has in some cases been expanded to encompass chain letters from friends and political announcements as well as direct advertising. One of the chief properties of SPAM is that it is usually distributed in bulk format.

SPAM is the "lazy person's" way of marketing a product. The SPAMmers purchase a CD-ROM containing thousands of e-mail addresses and prepared advertising copy. They then send out their messages in bulk, often overnight while they sleep, or hire a company to do this for them. The cost for sending SPAM is far less than that of postage and takes almost no time when compared with telemarketing. SPAMmers rarely target those with a specific interest in their products or services (such as genealogy software or "pay-for-use" online databases). Rather, they just send randomly to everyone on the list and hope that 1 or 2 per cent of the recipients will respond.

SPAM is very easy to identify. For one thing, it can make up the majority of messages in your inbox--especially noticeable when you've been away from your computer for awhile. Also, the return addresses are unfamiliar. Finally, though there are some unique products, most fall into the same few categories: mortgages, loans, and other financial issues; the enhancement of body parts; weight loss; computer supplies or job opportunities; and pornographic sites and materials. Sometimes the product being advertised is a CD-ROM for direct marketers! On some days, you may get the same exact advertisement from several different SPAMmers or be targeted by the same SPAMmer two or more times. And most of the ads make fantastic claims or promises which are probably impossible to keep.

WHY SPAM IS BAD

The most obvious reason for disliking SPAM is that it's intrusive. It's unwanted garbage that stuffs up our inboxes. It invades our homes and offices in the same unwelcome fashion as junk mail, telemarketing calls, and door-to-door salesmen do. It can make us frustrated, angry, and cause us to waste time complaining bitterly to anyone who will listen. How often have you been waiting for a message from a friend or family member--or even an important business communication--only to discover that the sound of incoming mail has heralded the arrival of SPAM?

SPAM is more than just a nuisance, though. It costs our ISP and our workplace actual dollars by stealing precious bandwidth from their networks. Much of the SPAM today eschews plain text in favor of glitzy "HTML" formats--huge Web-like pages with colorful and compled graphics, sound, and flashing banners that use up a good deal of your computer's resources. SPAM costs us at home and at work by causing us to stop whatever task we're doing to check our mail only to be forced to wade through and delete unwanted messages. Our time is worth more than to waste it on SPAM!

WHY ARE YOU RECEIVING SPAM?

You're receiving SPAM because your e-mail address was harvested from one of several places. Most often, SPAMming spiders can easily collect e-mail addresses from the Web. If you posted to a genealogy site or joined a newsgroup or host a Webpage, they're going get you sooner or later. It's also possible that you downloaded a legitimate product or joined a "club" in a market or other store. If you gave your e-mail address on a form (sometimes a mandatory requirement), it may have been sold to those who compile the information onto CD-ROMs that eventually find their way into the hands of SPAMmers. Worst of all, there have been anti-SPAM groups that have bartered the e-mail addresses of those who look to them for help. Basically, any time you give out your e-mail address, you're just asking for SPAM.

SPAM IS SNEAKY

How legitimate is SPAM? Have the products and services been used by anyone you know and not just touted in testimonials on some Website? Can you confidently and securely place an order online using your credit card?

No one can give you absolutely reassuring answers to these questions. But using common sense as your guide, you might want to ask yourSelf why any legitimate company or individual would ever use sneakiness and deception in their marketing techniques.

Take, for example, the case of "forged headers." The "header" is the portion of an e-mail message that displays routing information. Most of us don't usually include headers in our view options since they can be very long and involved. But you can request them to be included in HotMail and other Web-mail services; and you can see them in Outlook Express by highlighting the message and clicking on FILE/PROPERTIES/DETAILS. The header typically has such entries as:

a "Return Path" (e-mail address of sender)

a list of "Received From" entries showing what domain names and IP numbers the message has passed through on its way to you. The first entry shows your ISP's receipt from another Server while the last entry shows the originating Server

a "Message ID" (unique identifier)

a Date stamp

a "From" line (e-mail address of sender)

a "Reply To" line (e-mail address of sender or address to which you will be replying if you choose to do so

a "To" line (your e-mail address)

a "Subject" line, usually the same subject on the subject line of the actual message

Other elements may include X-Mailer (sender's e-mail client), Mime Version, Content-Type (such as plain text), Content-Transfer-Encoding, and X-UIDL (more unique coding) and reply or forwarding IDs if applicable.

The next time you get SPAM, check the header on the message. The "Return Path" and the "From" line may be forged--i.e., they may belong to an ISP that was never any part of the transfer. They may also belong to "open relay" computers. These are UNIX Servers--oftentimes located in foreign countries--which are hacked and set up as unwitting go-betweens for the transfer of SPAM.

Other tactics used by SPAMmers are more subtle. You've probably noticed that when we e-mail our annual greetings and quarterly newsletter announcements, we send them one by one, use informal language, and address each cousin by name. We feel that this personalizes a message that is destined to be read by hundreds of people. Well, SPAMmers have decided that this is a good idea, too. Some now have software that can "mail-merge" harvested e-mail addresses along with the names of recipients. More often than not, though, any personal greeting will address you by your e-mail "nickname."

One of the worst and most intrusive ploys we've seen has been in our capacity as surname and county mailing listowners. Reputable hosts such as RootsWeb will not allow anyone to post unless they are a subscriber to the list in question. The message will "bounce" to the list administrator who can then decide whether to allow it to go through. In most cases, the rejected message comes from someone who didn't realize the limitations of the software. If the message contains genealogical or historical material or a query of some kind, we will then "sub" the sender to the list and post the message for them. Lately, SPAMmers have been getting wise to the RootsWeb rules. They've been subscribing to the desired list(s) with perfectly ordinary e-mail addresses--then they quickly SPAM the list and unsub before they can be caught and identified. The addresses they subscribe under are, of course, totally bogus.

WHAT CAN BE DONE TO STOP SPAM?

There really isn't any perfect solution for eliminating SPAM from your inbox. Surprisingly, the federal government has failed to regulate the dissemination of unwanted advertising by creating and passing a good anti-SPAM law. Only a handful of individual states have such laws. California requires an "opt-out" notice to be placed on SPAM--a lame approach as you'll soon see. Washington has stronger laws banning the forging of headers and allowing Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to take action in certain cases.

Ideally, it's the ISPs--themselves victims of the theft of bandwidth--whose Servers would be the best choice for placement of SPAM filters. There are some problems with this approach, however. First, until SPAM is acknowledged as a means of theft, SPAMmers can argue their right to freedom of speech under the First Amendment. At least that's what some politicians give as a reason for their reluctance to enact more severe measures against the SPAMmers. Oddly enough, that didn't seem to deter the very same political figures in curbing advertising via FAX and Cell Phone, and some individual cities and counties are now cracking down on telemarketing.

Another reason for not placing SPAM filters on ISP Servers is that those filters are not yet designed to discriminate between SPAM and legitimate mass mailings. For example, some ISPs who have attempted to filter SPAM have done so by rejecting "bulk" mail. Unfortunately, listserv postings are also bulk mail and may be bounced inadvertently when this kind of mechanism is employed.

Other ISPs have used different criteria. Once we asked our ISP to filter out addresses originating in foreign nations since we noted that SPAMmers were setting up accounts in other countries to avoid detection. That didn't work, though, because we have many Self cousins in the UK and a few in other locations overseas.

MSN's HotMail service has an extreme plan which might work for some people but it wouldn't be an ideal choice for genealogists. You can choose to accept only mail from entries in your address book. It works flawlessly, but it wouldn't encourage new cousins to write to you!

WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT SPAM?

There was a segment on our local news in Los Angeles a few weeks ago that purported to tell us what WE could do about SPAM. We thought, "Hey, WE don't want to DO ANYTHING about SPAM. Why should WE have to do something? It should go away by itSelf!"

That's the most irritating thing about unwanted e-mail--you have to have some kind of interaction with it to get rid of it whether it's for now or for ever, and most of us don't want to be bothered. Unfortunately, there's no way around this problem--at least not yet.

Taking the preventive approach would be the easiest. We could simply change our e-mail addresses and never post anything to the Web again. That would be much harder on us than it would be on the SPAMmers, though.

If you don't have a Website and don't belong to newsgroups, you may want to limit your postings to sites such as the RootsWeb forums or "Self Portraits." On RootsWeb, the e-mail address is given, but you need to go through 3 levels to view it. What you finally see is a graphical representation of the address which cannot be spidered and harvested by any known bot so far. On "Self Portraits" we always ask respondents to reply to "Webmaster" and pass on the message--your e-mail address is never put on "Find YourSelf" unless you specifically request that we do so. On our USGenWeb County sites, we do have mailto links, and the posting individuals realize this. However, links are better than addresses clearly visible on the page.

If you receive SPAM, you can always delete it. Your e-mail client may support leaving your mail on the Server so you can delete it before it downloads to your inbox. Other good ways to do this are through Web-mail, if your ISP has it, or through the Unix-based PINE client via telnet. You can also ensure a minimum of SPAM if you set up a HotMail or Yahoo address specifically for registration of software or inquires about products or services online.

DON'T use the "opt-out" REPLY link usually found at the bottom of the message. While legislators intended this to be a way for you to tell SPAMmers that you're not interested and ensure that you won't receive further messages from them, it usually tends to do just the opposite. First, your acknowledgment of receipt of the message alerts the SPAMmer that your e-mail address is valid. Second, because it is valid, it may be sold by the SPAMmer to others of his kind, causing you to receive even more unwanted pitches in the future.

In the past, it has been a common practice to report SPAM to the ISP on whose Server it originated. Usually the Provider has an e-mail address such as [email protected] set up to handle such messages. If one of its customers is actually sending SPAM out to others on a continual basis, it will be very pleased with your input. But there is so much "forging" today that you may find that the address is a fake and the sender doesn't really have an account with the ISP listed in the headers. Reporting abuse, then, is another waste of time for both you and the Provider.

You may want to make your complaints known to your government representatives. They won't want to see any actual pieces of SPAM unless there is illegal activity involved. They just want to know how you feel about SPAM so that they can vote for or against any future regulation of this practice. While we are re-working out Route-66 Auto Club site, we've put a list of legislators and their e-mail addresses there for you to use if you wish to voice your opinions about SPAM. Replies are not guaranteed--but the more people who write, the more hope we have of banishing this nuisance from our inboxes.

SUMMARY

Whenever a new means of communication is activated, advertising is sure to follow. If anyone in the world knows your e-mail address, receiving unwanted and unsolicited sales pitches is inevitable. Whether you get 10 messages a day or well over 100, a large percentage of them will be SPAM. You can recognize SPAM easily. But it's far more difficult to identify its source, and it's almost impossible to stop its flow to your inbox. SPAM is costly in time and money to both individuals and businesses. Don't reply to the SPAMmers or order anything they offer, but be sure to write to your representatives to help convince them to criminalize the dissemination of this type of "junk mail."

(NEXT: Genealogy Queries)

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1930 Monroe County, TN Census- 15th Census of the United States: Population Schedule

contributed by Cousin Barry

CLICK HERE

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VIRUSES
Part I*
by Barbara Peck and Tim Seawolf-Self

A virus is a disease that can attack us at any time--and it can also attack our computers. What we call computer "viruses" can be broken down into several categories. There are viruses that attack the boot sector of your computer, viruses that replicate, viruses that erase or modify the contents of your hard drive, macro viruses that target Microsoft Word or Excel documents, and viruses that are nothing more than a nuisance. There are true viruses, worms, trojans, and even hoaxes. The hoax is not a virus at all since it is spread by users and not by digital means, but it can waste precious time when it's inevitably followed by disclaimers and discussion on a listserv. As in the case of SPAM, viruses and virus hoaxes also steal bandwidth from our ISPs by generating unnecessary message traffic on their Servers.

Viruses have a negative impact on the enjoyment you get from genealogical research. You are subjected to all the assaults that all users suffer. But in addition, you may lose your sense of excitement at corresponding with new cousins, and worse, your sense of trust in others may be eroded and destroyed.

*There are so many viruses out there in Cyberspace that it would be impossible to cover even a few of them in a brief article. We've decided to call this piece "part 1" because we hope to add to this topic as new threats arise. For now, we will deal with "Klez" which is the most widespread virus at this time.

WHAT IS THE KLEZ VIRUS?

The "Klez Virus"--or W32.Klez.*@mm (the * standing for variation letters such as "H" or "E")--is a worm-type virus spread via attachments to e-mail messages. A true virus, it can both execute and replicate itSelf.

The concept is nothing new. For the past couple of years, we've been subjected to viruses spread through e-mail. We've been warned endlessly not to open unsolicited attachments. And we've tried to notify virus senders so that they can disinfect their computers.

But some of the familiar remedies don't work anymore. The Klez Virus has taken matters a few steps further. It is able to perform some fairly sophisticated actions that are frustrating and confusing to users. And it's able to hide the true identity of the infected computer. When Klez strikes, we can't warn the host who may then never realize that he or she is harboring Klez and transmitting it to others.

WHAT DOES KLEZ DO?

Klez comes to you as an e-mail attachment--but it may take many forms, some recognizable and some obscure.

First, the FROM line may contain the name, alias, or e-mail address of a friend or associate, or it may appear to be sent from a complete stranger. Check out the headers (described in the SPAM article above), and you'll probably discover that they contain no mention of the host that appears in the FROM line. You may be able to tell from the headers that the message did originate with a certain ISP, but you won't know exactly who the sender was. You may not be able to identify the host at all, since Klez is an expert at forging headers.

All this happens because Klez randomly goes through the e-mail folders on the infected computer and selects addresses to be used in the TO and FROM lines. Whereas earlier worms could choose the TO address and/or send itSelf to everyone in your address book, they used the actual address of the host computer in the FROM line. Klez disguises the sender as well; therefore it is totally useless to write to the address in the FROM LINE to tell that person that they have a virus. In most cases they don't have one, and their machine never sent out the infected message.

You may receive "cannot deliver" warnings from other Servers for messages you never sent. You may get virus-laden messages from your friends, your family, your genealogy contacts, the mailing lists you subscribe to, RootsWeb, or even from you to yourSelf!

Klez can also select a subject from the e-mail folders on the host computer. This feature may sometimes serve as an alert to you since it may have no relevance to anything you've been working on. But the virus may choose a subject line that means something to you or makes you curious to see what is in the attached file.

Another of Klez's abilities is to vary the message text. Occasionally there is no text at all and you receive only a blank message. Or Klez may use a prepared script, offering you a new game, a "powful tool," protection against Klez itSelf, an interesting file, or an invitation to "be friends." These scripts are almost always written in broken ungrammatical, incorrectly-spelled English, so they're easy to spot. But Klez can also extract pieces of messages from the e-mail folders of the infected computer. The ones we've received have not been complete texts, ending abruptly in mid-sentence. This may indicate a character limit in the worm's programming.

The message is almost always accompanied by an attachment. The attached file will probably have one of several extensions: .exe, .com, .scr, and .pif . These are executable files. If you open or run them, they execute themSelfs and prepare to replicate by means of e-mail attachments to others. In a few rare instances, there is no attachment. The replication of the virus fortunately has failed. You cannot "catch" Klez from an e-mail message with no attachment. You cannot become infected from reading an e-mail message if you don't open the accompanying attachment. Remember all those hoaxes that warn you not to "open" an e-mail message that has a certain subject line? It's impossible to contract a virus from reading a text message. However, beware of one thing that Klez can do. If the attachment has a .txt extension, it may be hiding something far more insidious. It may have a second extension similar to the ".vbs" that tagged along on attachments containing the "I Love You" and "Melissa" viruses. Right click on the attachment and view the properties--that way you'll see whether the attached file is really plain text or Klez in disguise. In this case, while the e-mail message itSelf can't hurt you, reading the disguised "text" attachment can and will do great harm.

It is easy to open Klez. On one of our computers, Klez-laden messages received in Outlook Express don't even give us a chance to click on the "paper clip." Instead, a window pops up immediately with the circle checked beside "open" (the default is "save to disk"). If we weren't careful, we could infect our computer with just one hurried click.

Also, remember that if your computer is infected, it doesn't take any interaction from you for the virus to begin sending itSelf to others. This can happen behind the scenes--so check your "sent" messages often if you think your computer might have a virus.

GENEALOGICAL IMPLICATIONS

The major damage that Klez inflicts upon genealogists is an erosion of trust. In the course of our online research, strangers become friends very quickly. We're anxious to exchange photos, gedcoms, and documents with them. Yet do we dare to take a chance and open an attached file from any source--new friend or old? Do we know that it really comes from them? Do we know that their computers are not infected with Klez or another devastating virus?

The answer is that we can't be sure of what an attachment contains unless our contacts tell us in the body of the message. And we should reciprocate when we send files to them. The most likely extensions that you will receive from another researcher are .doc, rtf, .jpg, and .gif--sometimes .xls--and, if you share a common genealogy program, you may receive a file an extension that is proprietary to that software. You may also receive a .zip file containing two or more other files. The chances are almost zero that someone is going to send you an executable file (.exe or .com)--so if you receive one of those, just delete it and assume that it was transmitted by a virus unless you were told otherwise by your contact.

Trusting others is vital to genealogical research. There is enough haggling over names, dates, sources, and permissions without having to deal with the intentional harm caused by viruses. If you foolishly invite another virus onto your hard drive by opening an executable attachment, you can mitigate the damage by apologizing to those who may in turn have received the code from you. But if the Klez virus is sent "from you" when you didn't actually send it, it can lead to arguments and a great deal of flaming, judging from some postings to our listservs. Discussing Klez or any other virus at length on those lists also squanders bandwidth and wastes time--listmembers, would rather you post your lineage than complain about others? Klez takes a lot of the fun out of genealogy.

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO STOP KLEZ?

Viruses thrive and propagate because people allow them to do so. The author of Klez must have many silent chuckles as unwitting recipients blindly open attachments and help spread his handiwork around the globe. Here's what you can do to stop Klez from making life miserable for you and your correspondents.

It can't be repeated too often: DON'T OPEN QUESTIONABLE ATTACHMENTS!! Don't be fooled by the name of a friend or relative in the FROM line. NEVER open executable attachments. And when you send an attachment, always include the file name of the file you are attaching within the body of the message. Ask that all your correspondents do likewise. Delete attachments that have no reference in the message they accompany. Be wary of blank messages or messages written in poor English.

Don't repeat virus warnings sent to you by others until you check a reputable anti-virus site such as McAfee or Norton and verify that the warning is not a hoax. Don't rush to post such warnings to a listserv unless you know for sure what you're talking about. Keep a prepared "form message" to reply to those who believe they received a virus-laden message from you--or copy this article and paste it into an e-mail message to them.

If you receive a message with a questionable attachment, here's what to do:

If you use Eudora as your e-mail client, make sure you go into C:\EUDORA\ATTACH (default folder)--or whatever folder you keep your received attachments in--and delete the attachment. It's a good idea to check this folder at least once a week, save valid attachments to your hard disk, and delete the rest.

If you use Outlook Express, delete the message with its "paper clip" attachment, empty your Delete Folder, and then compact all folders.

Run your anti-virus software. If you don't have McAfee or Norton, there are other good free virus scan programs on the Web. Even if your program has caught and quarantined or deleted the infected file, it's best to make sure that the file is no longer on your hard drive.

Finally, if you know that you have actually opened an instance of the Klez Virus, close your e-mail program. Then go immediately to one of the anti-virus sites and get a patch to remove the virus. Keep in mind that simply receiving an attachment that you don't open means that a DORMANT virus is resident on your computer--it can be caught and deleted by your anti-virus software if you fail to purge it yourSelf. But an opened virus file is another thing. These can rarely be cleaned and must be eradicated by applying a patch, editing the Registry, or running a script against it.

SUMMARY

The Klez Virus is a dangerous worm with one objective: to replicate itSelf by spreading its seeds to every computer in the world. In order to accomplish its ends, Klez tries to induce the unwary user to open its attached files. Because it can generate a random "FROM" address chosen from the e-mail client of the infected computer, the user may think that it was sent by a friend, relative, fellow researcher, a major genealogy site, or even a mailing list. For the genealogist, this means that trust must be replaced with caution. The Klez Virus can be defeated by following simple steps such as not opening questionable attachments, giving out and insisting upon receiving the names of attached files, being able to recognize the virus in its many forms, safely deleting the dormant files from your computer, running virus scans, and cleaning your computer if it becomes infected. If all of us remain aware of Klez and its damaging potential, we can ensure that it will not bother us again.

(NEXT: Privacy)


Maybe your ancestors used to tell stories about life in the "old days," stories you remember hearing as a child. Please tell us about them. We will even supply editing and formatting; but we'd all love to know about daily life in the Self families of old--and you may be able to help. Please contact us. And please state that your story is specifically for the newsletter.


LOOSE ENDS

Please go to our "Loose Ends" subsection at our SelfSite at RootsWeb.

DEAD ENDS

Please go to our "Dead Ends" subsection at our SelfSite at RootsWeb.


SELFS IN SPACE

What would you like to see here? This space is reserved for any topic of interest to Self cousins. Express YourSelf!!


If you do not wish to receive this electronic publication, please take a moment to e-mail us.

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DISCLAIMERS OF WARRANTIES AND LIABILITY

Some parts of this newsletter contain information contributed by individuals. The editors may not monitor or censor the information placed on these Pages. We do not invite reliance upon, nor accept responsibility for, the information posted here.

Each individual contributor is solely responsible for the content of their information, including any and all legal consequences of the postings. We are in no way, in whole or in part, responsible for any damages caused by the content in this newsletter or by the content contributed by any person.

We do not warrant, or guarantee any of the services, products, or information used for these pages. We do not make any warranty, expressed or implied, and do not assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any of the information disclosed in this publication, or represent in any way that the use would not infringe privately owned rights.

NOTICE: The information in this newsletter is Copyrighted, and must not be used for any commercial purposes or republished in any form without prior permission. This newsletter is copyrighted, except where previous copyright applies.

Copyright 1998-2002 Tim Seawolf-Self and Barbara A. Peck, All Rights Reserved


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