What are the risks of opening email attachments?
What are the risks of opening email attachments?
This depends on Several factors.
If you know whom the attachment is from, it may be safe.
If you have downloaded the email or attachment to your Computer. Windows Mail, Mac Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird etc all do this. It is generally unsafe unless you are expecting it.
If you are using online email such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail etc. It should be fine as long as you do not "Download the Attachment".
I'm not sure about Yahoo or Hotmail but Gmail has its own "Office" functions similar to Word & Excell that will offer to open the attachment for you.
This allows you to view the contents without downloading the file to your PC.
Also almost all Email Clients (Outlook, Thunderbird etc.) have the ability to use your currently installed Anti-Virus to scan emails and attachments as they are receive.
even if you recognize the sender the attachment may not be safe since trojans ometimes will fake the sender field, or even take control of email programs of peole you know and use them to send emails. For example if you downloaded a trojan it could use your email to send itself to everyone on your contact list.
Risks include viruses, gaining control of your information, gaining access to personal data.
Always have your anti-virus up to date and only open attachments if you were expecting them. Also never open .exe files or other files that will run automatically, generally txt files (opened with text editor) or image files such as gif and jpeg are safer.