  If you don't know SCAN IT or delete it!
Always SCAN these: .com
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Computer Cooties II - The Trojan Horse
There was nothing Pixie enjoyed more than receiving e-mail for Mrs. Wizard. The high-pitched squeal of the modem was just about the most exciting sound she could ever imagine hearing. The moment it began, Pixie could be seen absolutely quivering with anticipation. What was it going to be today? A question from someone on the Internet? A lovely poem from Mrs. Wizard’s friend Barbi? Perhaps a .jpg file from her friend Johanna, all the way from Australia! Maybe a mysterious note from Wisdom Woman. Anything was possible. Who knows? It might even be a humorous little quip from Ricardo, the crazy Italian, or a sample of the latest swashbuckling novel from JC’s desk. That’s what made it so much fun! You could never tell what was going to be waiting in her e-mail! "Look!" Pixie cried one morning as she heard the lovely modem sound. "Isn’t that special? Someone is sending Mrs. Wizard a happy file! Look Mrs. Wizard! Open your e-mail quick! You’ve got a very special
"Oh, I don’t know. Maybe it is from one of your fans on the Internet. Hurry up and let’s see what it is!" replied Pixie, with a mischievous gleam on her monitor. "Sorry, Pixie," said Mrs. Wizard. "I don’t know who sent this e-mail. It will have to be deleted. You know we don’t open files attached to e-mail from strangers." "Why?" whined Pixie. "It can’t be a bad e-mail! No one would dare send you anything bad! How about if we call Mr. McAfee? Maybe he can help us find out what it is. Oh Mrs. Wizard! Give happy99.exe a chance!" "All right Pixie. If it will make you feel better, I will be happy to let Mr. McAfee look it over. But I must warn you. Mr. McAfee feels the same way I do about accepting files from strangers. Now let’s get to work. We have a newsletter to finish. All the Wizards To Be are waiting for these new spells!" Pixie knew that this was not the time to press the issue. Perhaps later, when Mr. McAfee had a chance to scan it, he would be able to convince Mrs. Wizard that happy99.exe was really a harmless bit of fun. At least she wasn’t going to delete it right away. There was still time to reason with her. What a busy morning they had! Mrs. Wizard’s fingers positively flew over little Pixie’s keyboard as she wrote new spells and incantations for her Wizards To Be to hone their skills. So much to learn! So little time! Mr. McAfee appeared just as they were finishing the last spell for the newsletter. "Top o’ the mornin’ to ye ladies! Workin’ hard, I see!" "Oh Mr. McAfee!" Pixie exclaimed. "Just the person we wanted to see! Mrs. Wizard has a new file called happy99.exe! I can hardly wait to open it and see what fun it will be, but Mrs. Wizard said she wanted you to take a peek first." "Oh? And where might this file have come from? An e-mail from a stranger perhaps?" Mrs. Wizard’s hair stood out on the back of her neck as she said, "You are familiar with this one, Mr. McAfee?" "Let me check to make sure, Mrs. Wizard. It won’t take a minute. Here Pixie. You can do the honors. Right click and choose Scan Now, if you will."
"I had no idea!" Pixie shuddered. "What would we do without you, Mr. McAfee! Oh Mrs. Wizard! It sounded like such a nice file!" "That’s why they are called Trojan Horse viruses, darlin," Mr. McAfee said gently. Viruses like these are named after the famous wooden horse the ancient Greeks used to trick the Trojans into letting them into their city. They thought it was a lovely gift, this huge statue, and really had to work hard to get it into the city gates. Later on, when everyone was sleeping, the soldiers, hidden inside the Trojan Horse, slipped out and were able to conquer the entire city of Troy. When you hear the words, ‘Beware of Greeks bearing gifts’, that is what they are referring to. Viruses like these like to sneak into your lovely little system attached to e-mail, hidden in documents, and usually have very happy names. Do you think you would have been as eager to open it if it had been called Virus.exe? I’m just happy you didn’t have to learn about this the hard way! You downloaded the file but you didn’t ‘bring it into the 'city’ by opening or running it." "Thank you Mr. McAfee," Mrs. Wizard said gently. "Little Pixie is young yet. She is only beginning to understand that not all programs are beautiful in the outside world, and sometimes it is hard to tell the difference." "I will remember, Mr. McAfee!" Pixie blushed. " And no matter how nice they sound, I will wait for you to scan any files before I even think about opening them again!" "Thank you Pixie," said Mr. McAfee. "Your hard drive means a lot to all of us. Mrs. Wizard and I do the best we can to make sure it stays nice and healthy. We want you to be your frisky, happy self all the time!" Mr. McAfee quietly disappeared into cyberspace, but little Pixie and Mrs. Wizard knew that he was only a touchpad tap away. Hopefully, there wouldn’t be a next time. But you never know,
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Once upon a time, in a land far away, there was a computer named Pixie. Pixie was special in many ways. She didn’t look like much of a computer (she was a laptop), but she could work faster than many big computers. And she had a hard drive large enough to hold everything Mrs. Wizard needed when she took little Pixie to visit her Wizards To Be. That’s right! Little Pixie belonged to Mrs. Wizard, and that made her very special indeed!
"Well who is it from, Pixie?" Mrs. Wizard said, as she floated on her cloud seat towards the desk Pixie was on. She tapped once on the mysterious message Pixie was so excited about so she could view it better.
Pixie did as she was told, and Mr. McAfee’s handy dandy little virus scanner went to work. Within seconds, the file was identified as a rather obnoxious Trojan Horse virus. Mr. McAfee deleted it immediately, then turned to Pixie and said, "Now little darlin’, aren’t you glad you waited for me to scan it before you opened it? You could have gotten an awful hard drive ache!"