[ale] OT: Is MS Outbreak really this dangerous?

[James P. Kinney III]

Some AV software filters on the way into the mail client, others filter
on display. Turning of the preview pane is a wise choice as that is the
entry vector for new viruses that are not in the AV databases yet. Just
by having the preview pane open, it opens the message to put it in the
preview pane. Major security risk especially in the M$ environment.

The major catch will be enforcing that policy. As the (l)user on the
keyboard owns their preferences, the system-wide admins can't lock down
the config to stop them from changing it back.

On Thu, 2003-03-20 at 09:28, hbbs at attbi.com wrote:
> A company-wide e-mail just came down the pike stating:
> 
> "Due to viruses that can infect your computer simply by being previewed in your
> e-mail program, it is company policy that the preview pane (the window at the
> bottom of Outlook and Outlook Express that shows messages without opening them)
> be turned off on your inbox folder."
> 
> Is it really this dangerous to use Outlook or is this an
> aluminum-foil-on-the-head/paint-inside-of-CD-player-green thing?
> 
> How susceptible are other Windows mail clients (e.g., Mozilla)?  Wouldn't
> run-of-the-mill Windows AV software catch such "preview viruses" as long as the
> AV SW knew about them?
> 
> - Jeff
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-- 
James P. Kinney III          \Changing the mobile computing world/
CEO & Director of Engineering \          one Linux user         /
Local Net Solutions,LLC        \           at a time.          /
770-493-8244                    \.___________________________./
http://www.localnetsolutions.com

GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics) <jkinney at localnetsolutions.com>
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