Spyware Blaster

[NewEntity1]

[/quote]How on earth can a virus be written into a .jpg file? My system handles .jpg as read-only and won't execute anything through it.[/quote]

If your just using jpgs as intended (ie: for viewing), you have nothing to worry about.

However, a recent trend has been young folks in high school imbedding text messages inside graphic files. Viewing the embedded text messages then requires special software that extracts the embedded text message. If the embedded message is actually a script virus, the receiving person using this special software can get hit with the virus...but only if the receiving person is using this special software for extracting embedded text in the first place. If your just viewing images with your browser, or some other image viewing software like photoshop, your completely safe.

 

[rbeckey]

Steganography is the process of encrypting text or other files (even other images) into images. It requires the both sender and receiver know first that the image contains covert information and secondly, the key to extract it. To get a virus this way you would have to be using a steganography program at the time, otherwise the picture is just a picture and you can't extract anything from it, accidently or on purpose. If you were using steganography and got a virus, you'd probably know exactly who sent it.