Most of us belong to one or more Yahoo Groups. They can be fun and a great help in learning something new. Chances are many of the groups you belong to are probably related to machine embroidery, quilting or sewing. While these groups are a good source of information, you should be aware of the risks involved with email distribution.
When you join a Yahoo Group there are three options to choose from for message distribution. Those choices are 'No Email', 'Individual Emails', or 'Daily Digest'. Choosing No Email requires you to visit the group's home page in order to review and read new messages. The Individual Email setting results in new messages being sent to you directly by email as they are posted. Depending on group activity, you may find your inbox continually filled with new messages. The Daily Digest setting limits email delivery to a digest containing each new message once per day.
Many of you elect to receive individual emails for the sake of convenience. Doing so prevents the need to visit each group home page to read new messages and you get that answer to your question as soon as it arrives. Considering how slow Yahoo's servers are at times, this can be a real time saver. However, before making your decision consider the following.
There are two ways to post messages in Yahoo Groups. You can visit the home page and post them directly, or you can send messages to the group by email. A large majority of users seem to prefer the latter method for posting or replying to messages. As with any email message, sending messages to a Yahoo Group by email permits the sender to include attachments. As we all know, email attachments can be either friend or foe. They can consist of a harmless graphic, or contain a deadly virus.
In an effort to protect their own servers, Yahoo strips all non-text attachments from incoming emails before posting them. Attachments are not stored on their servers. Normally you will see a note at the bottom of the message indicating the removal of any non-text attachments. This is done to prevent the intrusion of unwanted viruses, trojans, and other nasty little spyware programs.
Yahoo does nothing to help protect its users. Defending your own computer is entirely up to you. Every email sent by a group member is passed on to all those set to individual emails as received without alteration. Any and all attachments are passed directly on to you. When you open the email you are at risk if the attachment contains a virus. This risk is one that you should be aware of at all times.
Viruses, known for their stealth and replication properties, can be transmitted unknowly by even the most well known and trusted members without their knowledge. But the risks are multiplied by groups that do not require approvals for membership or message posting. Many spammers join such groups for the sole purpose of distributing spam and other undesireable items. Open groups like this provide yet another source for intrusion into your personal computer. Since you probably don't know most of the members of any given group, extra caution may be in order.
I am not suggesting that you should never set your groups to individual emails. I am suggesting that you make certain your virus and spyware protection is up to date and functioning properly. Even then there are risks of new viruses arriving that have yet to be discovered and are not yet included in your software's virus definitions. The amount of risk you are willing to take is entirely up to you.
Which ever method you choose be sure to understand the related consequences. Should something go wrong it will be up to you to fix the problem. It does take longer visiting each group's home page to read new messages, but how long would it take to rebuild a computer that has been destroyed by a deadly virus?
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