Cliff Bowman <c.b### [at] cwcomnet> wrote in message
news:37d9e0af.43362129@news.povray.org...
> Well he did say e-mail viri - and M$ products to tend to have more
> holes in them than some others. Aside from Peter's suggestion there's
> also Word macro viruses which can, in theory (and practice if you have
> your settings "just so") open up and run just from looking at the text
> - and possibly without even opening the document (I'm not sure if the
> Preview Pane some M$ mail clients use would activate macros under any
> circumstances - silly if they did IMHO).

That really depends.  Outlook Express doesn't load Word files (from what I
know), but Outlook is integrated into Word, so I believe that any E-Mail is
opened into a sub-program that, basically, IS Word, only it looks more like
a preview window.

Actually, say a determined hacker gets your friend's IP and E-Mail address,
perhaps through ICQ or a Quake server that he runs, for instance.  He can
use an IP bouncer to mask his IP and use your friend's, then change the
e-mail address in his mail client and shoot you an e-mail with an attachment
of a Word document with the Melissa virus.

If you happen to use Netscape Messenger (which, the spell checker in OE
suggested 'Massager' when I spelled it wrong.  hehe), and you see that your
friend e-mailed you a "funny Word document".  You open the document, and
BAM!  You got Melissa!

You're not truly safe no matter WHAT you use.

-Ian

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