Avoid These Email Attachments!

The world of email attachments is quite a dangerous one indeed, one misstep and you open can open your computer to a swarm of pests - making your life very difficult. That said, there are some file attachments that are not usually dangerous and there are some that you must use extreme caution in opening. I like to start with the positive first, so we will talk about what is usually safe.

“Safe” Email File Attachments

.gif, .jpg, .jpeg, .tiff, .tif, .mpg, .mpeg, .mp3, and .wav files will most likely cause no trouble at all. There have been some exploits with the above file extensions but those have likely been patched and cleaned up. With an up-to-date browser it is unlikely that you have anything to fear from these files. It is imperative that you make sure that the attachment only has one file extension and not something like image.gif.vbs. If you receive a file with two extensions, delete that email immediatly and don’t open it!

Dangerous Email File Attachments

If you receive an email that contains any of the following file extensions in the attachments, delete it and don’t open the attachment. Even if its from an expected source, its better to be safe than sorry.

AVOID these file extensions: .ade, .adp, .asx, .bas, .bat, .chm, .cmd, .com, .exe, .hlp, .hta, .inf, .ins, .isp, .js, .jse, .lnk, .mda, .mdb, .mde, .mdt, .mdw, .mdz, .msc, .msi, .msp, .mst, .ops, .pcd, .pif, .prf, .reg, .scf, .scr, .sct, .shb, .shs, .url, .vb, .vbe, .vbs, .wsc, .wsf, and .wsh.

Use caution if you find files of other extension types, ask the sender in person (over the phone is fine) if he or she meant to send that file. Run your virus scan on the file before opening it.