More File Extensions Defanged

To counter the threat of Trojan Horse viruses, which often appear disguised as email attachments, the Computing Center has implemented a Vbs script block on Oregon, Darkwing, and Gladstone that checks the file names of email attachments. If the file attachment is of a type that could cause an infection, the system adds the suffix ".txt" to the name. The attachments are not otherwise altered in any way, and this precaution prevents most inadvertent infections on Windows machines.

We recently increased the list of MIME file extensions that are disabled by this system. The current list of affected file attachments end with one of the following filename extensions:

If you wish, you can restore an email attachment to its original state by simply removing the ".txt" that was added to the end of the file name. But if you choose to do this, be careful! Before making such changes, we recommend you verify that the sender intentionally sent the email message and attachment to you.