World of Warcraft and Blizz's Ridiculous Bans.

[Dhalin]

I think that's kind of silly. You are more likely to get hit by a trojan by going directly to a legit website than accepting an attached image that a friend you know sent you. I'm just curious how your friends might feel if/when they're told you won't download something they sent you via email because you think they might be sending you a virus. A malicious link, for example, isn't going to be any different in an email than it would be anywhere else. Even legit websites can get hacked and redirect people going there.

Besides, emails aren't as horribly vulnerable compared to the rest of the internet as you seem to think. Sure, someone who really knows what they're doing can make an email seem 100% legit, but trust me when I say that if they're that good that isn't the only way they'll be able to get you, it's just one of the easier ways. If not properly secured, it's possible to get hit by malware imbedded within an image linked on the forums, or hell, displayed on the forum its self.

Emails are by far not the only way someone can get to you, and if you treated the internet as a whole to the extreme that you seem to treat email, then you might as well disconnect your modem.

The thing about email, though, is if you own a server, or webspace, you could do something like this:

Put up a picture on your website.
Get some kind of tracking system, or if you own the server, you have server logs.
Send the email with the link inside, or imbed the picture in the email.
Wait for your victim to open their email.

IF they loaded images, their computer will ask your server for the picture.

Check your logs, there's your recipient's IP address. Assuming that you used a quirky filename, and didn't link to that picture from any HTML page, then you KNOW the ONLY person who loaded that picture, was the person you sent the email to, right?

I can only let you use your imagination on what any decent hacker could do with your IP address if you don't have the proper security.

That's why most AV software will warn you about image links in an email.

[Chasing]

I can only let you use your imagination on what any decent hacker could do with your IP address if you don't have the proper security.

Make sure you are using a dynamic IP (from your ISP) and change it on regular intervals. If you are using a static IP you are more open to attacks.

[Frith-Rae]

*heh* I rarely rarely rarelyu ever get anything from friends in emails. My friends just don't need to send things to me that way.

If I get links it something in emails its one of two things - not friends (therefore unnecessary to even click on it, as I don't give a crap); or spam-joke-things from friends (which are also ignored because I don't give a crap).

I don't get things sent to me in email outside of work. ANd work emails usually have just document attachments from work only emails (i.e. people have personal emails and work emails cuz if they use work for personal stuff they get caught lol).

So no, my friends don't have a problemw ith me not looking at their emails - cuz they don't send me things in emails anyway (that's worth my time - I am not speaking of lolercat photos and youtube videos..lol).

And I believe I've been infected by ANYTHING twice in uhh..well since about 1980. AV/Malaware/whatever protection....off/on.

And that includes over a decade of "warez" via ye.old.newsgroups (remmber those - awesomesauce! LOL) and now bittorenting.

Maybe its just my choice of sites, the 'official' 'regular' websites I go to are either setup well enough that they are RARELY hacked that way; or they aren't of any interest to such *shrugs*.

So no, its not at all impossible, improbable, or even very difficult to live like that .