Considering the level of technical talent on this list, I should probably keep my nose out of this so as not to reveal my ignorance, but, since I have this problem with not being able to keep my mouth shut sometimes ......... It's my understanding that the reason these virii/worms seem to proliferate through Microsoft programs is due to an inherent security problem with the design itself of Microsoft systems. Microsoft applications are too intimately tied in with the operating system, so application programs can screw up the operating system. And, maybe more importantly, due to the ability of a rampant virus/worm to wreak havoc running through a system and deleting and modifying everything in sight, something not possible in a Unix system because of the permission structure of the file system. These virus outbreaks are getting to be a major pain in the butt; our ISP disconnected their e-mail servers for about the last 24 hours in order to keep from getting infected with "ILOVEYOU"; maybe the potential side benefit of these outbreaks will be that Microsoft will be forced to tighten things up in their own technical design? Paul "removing foot from mouth" Greene At 04:17 PM 5/5/00 +0200, you wrote:
At 08:36 05-05-00, Dennis wrote:
Microsoft Corp., for its part, said the virus was not indicative of any particular vulnerability associated with Microsoft Outlook. [...snip...] Anyway, here's what a spin-doctor at Mickey$oft has to say about it, courtesy of Reuters-- prepare to gag. -------------BS follows-----------
``Viruses are really an industry-wide issue,'' said Scott Culp, program manager for Microsoft's security response center. ''They can be written for any platform. They can be written to use a variety of e-mail clients.
``In this case the virus author chose to target Outlook probably because it gave him better reach,'' he said. ``There isn't a security vulnerability in Outlook involved in this at all,'' Culp said. ------------end BS-------------
Actually he was right. As far as I know, this worm (it is NOT a virus) still requires the user to actively tell the computer to run the program.
If the user will run it, he might also save it and run it if he was using a different MUA or even OS. (Of course, in this specific case, the program would only run on a MS OS.)
Please note that I am not saying that Microsoft programs are safe, just that as long as a user has to actively run a program, it is no fault of the OS or applications if the program is malicious.
Regards
Ole Kofoed Hansen okh@post.cybercity.dk ICQ# 25773325
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