Section 9 - What is a Hoax?

Hoaxes usually arrive in the form of an email. Please disregard the hoax emails - they contain bogus warnings usually intent only on frightening or misleading users. The best course of action is to merely delete these hoax emails. Although it is possible to be emailed an infected executable file or document containing a macro virus, by simply reading your email, you will not get a computer virus. You would have to open the file attachment to actually get a virus. Therefore, precautions should be taken when dealing with such attachments. (Read the St. Edward's email attachment policy for information on attachments that are automatically discarded because of their potential to carry viruses and worms.)

If you receive notice of a virus via email, please forward it to the Help Desk at helpline@stedwards.edu so that it can be checked out. If it is a legitimate virus, you and the St. Edward's community will be notified.