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

[Jonathan Rickman]

On Thu, 20 Mar 2003 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?

IMNSHO, it IS this dangerous to use them. Statistics do not lie.

>
> 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?

The other clients are generally not AS vulnerable, but are still VERY
vulnerable. I have one situation where I am forced to use Windows 2000. I
use cygwin,fetchmail, and pine. AV is only as good as the latest
definitions.


--
Jonathan Rickman
X Corps Security
http://www.xcorps.net

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