[rescue] Fun new virus out there - subject line of "Hi!"

Eric Johnson rescue at sunhelp.org
Wed Dec 5 07:44:01 CST 2001


On Tue, 4 Dec 2001, Doctor Obnox Son of a Bitch wrote:

> Ken Hansen, reeling from the shock, managed on Tue, Dec 04, 2001 at 08:34:39PM -0500 to scrawl:
> > Whee! I never open my email in Outlook, I simply use the "preview pane,"
> > which does not run such "bonus software"...
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Ken
>
> Sad to say, but I don't think that will keep you safe. There are reputed
> to be virii out there that will happily run in the preview pane.
>
>
You are correct. At least one of the recent virii would execute in the
preview pane. The only way to deal with it (if forced to use Outlook by
corporate policies -- I know the feeling) is to set all email to be in
your most untrusted security zone and make sure that all script execution,
file downloading and anything else is turned off. Oddly enough, that
leaves you with an Outlook that functions almost exactly like Pegasus
mail, but we will never convince people to switch to a client that doesn't
have the script execution abilities ("It may be essential to an
application we build in the future.")

-- Eric Johnson

"... man will occasionally stumble over the truth,
    but usually manages to pick himself up,
    walk over or around it, and carry on"
    -- Winston Churchill



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