Questions about ransomware

Viruses and worms
1
  1. Can the mere act of unsuspectingly opening a piece of malicious email cause a problem?
  2. Is it always safe to click on an embedded URL link (as opposed to opening an attachment)?
  3. Can you count on security programs like Avast to warn about dangerous attachments? (Of course there will always be a time lag between the appearance of new malware and the reaction steps to thwart it.)
  4. Will a protection program like Avast ask for permission before letting malware change all of the data on your harddrive?
  5. If you have a backup harddrive that is permanently connected to the computer for automatic backup, can the malware affect data in that also, short of your displacing a good backup with an infected one?
2
  1. Yes
  2. Clicking on something can always cause a problem.
  3. Yes and no. There is no single application that can detect everything. We advise to use avast +mbam +McShield.
  4. No, if avast detects something it will block it, remove it, fix it, move to the chest (depends on your settings)
  5. Yes
3
5. If you have a backup harddrive that is permanently connected to the computer for automatic backup, can the malware affect data in that also, short of your displacing a good backup with an infected one?
you may be saved if you use MCShield .... a special (free) program for malware that try to use USB to spread http://www.mcshield.net/

you can upload and test downloaded file(s) or mail attchments at one of these places before you run them www.virustotal.com / www.metascan-online.com