On Sat, 11 Sep 1999 21:09:49 -0400, "Ian Burgmyer"
<the### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:

>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.
>
Well yeah - if you open an attchment in anything (well, any attachment
that can run "code" - even a humble macro) then you're open to
viruses.


Cheers,

Cliff Bowman
Why not pay my 3D Dr Who site a visit at http://www.who3d.cwc.net/

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