{"id":17199,"date":"2022-11-14T13:18:45","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T13:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/myonlinesecurity.co.uk\/?page_id=17199"},"modified":"2023-04-06T13:01:35","modified_gmt":"2023-04-06T13:01:35","slug":"why-you-should-set-your-folder-options-to-show-known-file-types","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/myonlinesecurity.co.uk\/show-known-file-types\/","title":{"rendered":"Why You Should Set Your Folder Options To \u201cShow Known File Types\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why You Need To Show Known File Types<\/strong><\/h2>\n

For years we have been seeing thousands or even millions of users get infected by opening email attachments where they think that the attachment is a file of a type they are expecting. Everybody gets documents and pictures sent to them, whether it is pictures of your sister\u2019s new baby or a friend telling you about his or her great holiday or night out.<\/p>\n

You need to show known file types because you can never rely on just the icon, because that can be faked very easily. You need to look at the file extension every time. Anytime you see a .EXE .COM or .SCR extension you have to remember that they are programs that run on your computer and are not a picture, video, document or other file that you just look at.<\/p>\n

If you have your computer options set at the default that it comes with you, which is not to show known file types, then you are seriously at risk of being infected.<\/p>\n

If you received an email with one of these attachments, what would you do. Along with most people ( unless you are a paranoid security professional who has set show known file types) you would assume that they are what they look like and open them. Well that is a guaranteed way to get your computer taken over by the bad guys and one of the very nasty latest malwares called Crypto-locker installed on your computer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Now If you do a simple tweak to the settings and Set your folder options to \u201cshow known file types\u201d. then you get these slightly different looking files when you open the email<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Now you can clearly see that the alleged PDF or DOC or XLS or WAV file is not what it pretends to be. It is a .exe, that is a program that will run on your computer. The zip file is genuine in both cases, and clicking on that will give you a message asking to extract the contents, which was the fake file. BUT you cannot be sure unless you have \u201cshow known file types\u201d enabled.<\/p>\n

This doesn\u2019t just apply to email attachments. You are just as likely to be infected when you follow a link from an email, personal message, Facebook link or any other web link, that tells you to download a picture, pdf file, word document, video or sound clip.<\/p>\n