MICROSOFT AND VIRUSES 

There are two types of viruses that usually get into Microsoft products. They are as below, in no specific order.

1. Macro viruses
2. Email viruses  

The email viruses are a lot more dangerous to most users than the macro viruses.  The reason is the email viruses can cause you to lose data and, if you're using a Microsoft email program (Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express), the viruses send themselves, without your knowledge, to everyone in your address book.  Some of the newer ones send to  each person whose email is in your Inbox.

MACRO VIRUSES 

Macro viruses affect only the applications that the macro is written in, and thus don't affect your entire hard drive; you don't lose all your data or have to format your hard drive.   One of the best methods to avoid getting these type of viruses is this:   when you open a document, unless you recall placing a macro in it,  when the application asks you if you wish to open the macro, say no.  By doing that, the macro won't open and damage the document.  These types of viruses will damage (corrupt) the document you're working on and sometimes spread to other documents in the same application.  It won't cause you to format your hard drive.   Macro viruses are written in the MACRO LANGUAGE of the applications that the program uses.  A macro virus made to affect Word documents won't damage (corrupt) an Excel document.  To learn more about macro viruses in general go to these URL's:

Antivirus at About.com 
click on macro's to get information on macro viruses.

The Macro Virus

Macro viruses: How they spread, prevention, and removal ... from Symantec

Microsoft Office Vulnerability ... from Sophos Support

One of the first macro viruses was the Laroux virus and there are many variations of this virus.   To learn more about this virus go to any of the following URLs. There are many variations of this virus and we are giving you a few to read up on. 

Trend Micro  

Symantec

Sophos

EMAIL VIRUSES 

Most of today's viruses are sent by email, without the person sending the virus knowing they sent the virus to someone.   These viruses go through WINDOWS MAPI system. There are hoaxes that state by putting in a false address beginning with !!!  the virus would be stopped.   This isn't true at all.  If it was email you sent, it would stop the email from going.   Because it was programmed to send by itself, it sends itself to all valid email addresses in your address book and many  to addresses in your INBOX.   As an example of these viruses sending themselves:   a couple of years ago someone I was associated with sent me an email with the subject " I Love you."  I knew this person would never send me such an email, as we only emailed each other business things.  What I'm trying to to tell you is this:   that by looking at the subject you may know it is a virus and delete it before your computer gets infected and you send the virus to more people.  What you should do as soon as you determine that a person sent you a virus- you should phone them (provided it is a local call and you have their phone number) and inform them they have such and such a virus.   If you can't phone them, email them and inform them.  What I did in the case above, was call the person by phone with the information.  The person thanked me for the information and asked for removal details.   No one would become angry at being told they have a virus, as no one would want to keep a virus on their computer, and send it without stop to family and friends.  One way, and the way I most highly recommend, to avoid getting an email virus is by not opening any attachments that you weren't informed you would be receiving, and also by verifying the size of the attachment.    If the file is bigger than you are expecting,  it usually means there is a virus in the file.  Viruses do make things bigger as they are coded into things. 

WHY ARE MICROSOFT PRODUCTS TARGETED?

As you all must be aware, Microsoft is one of the biggest software vendors in the world, thus people target them to get attention.   If they targeted John Smith's software, whom no one had  heard of, would it make the news?   I don't think so. Thus, by targeting Microsoft, they get their name or virus they wrote in the news. Of course Microsoft is doing all it can to prevent these holes for viruses to slip through.   They have hundreds if not thousands of software engineers looking into ways to make their products more secure to avoid viruses going through them or allowing someone to hack into your computer.  Also, Microsoft themselves, had to close down their servers on occasions due to getting one the viruses that went through a hole in a Microsoft product.  They lost millions of dollars in revenue, plus paid employees overtime to remove the virus from their servers, and had staff who couldn't work but still had to be paid.   So a virus is not something Microsoft wants at all. Microsoft finds out sometimes about the holes from security companies before or right after a virus is discovered and starts working to make a patch to correct that problem.   At Microsoft's web site you will see many patches to correct various problems (either security wise or user problems) that had to be corrected. One of the viruses that got into Microsoft's server was the "I Love You" and, if my memory is correct, they had to close their server for two days to remove the viruses and get everything set back up correctly.   Although a lot of viruses do go through Microsoft products, let's not constantly criticize them.   They are doing the best they can to avoid having holes to let viruses slip in.  

We also have a part to play by being careful what attachments we open and, if we do unknowingly send a virus, notifying  the people receiving it, so they can delete that message in order that  the virus won't spread.  Also, if you spot a hole,  inform Microsoft so they can plug the hole before someone else makes a virus that will slip through.