Re: virus and XY as a file viewer...

[Daniel Say say@xxxxxxxx]

" At 11:13 PM -0700 01.7.21, Ed Cray wrote:
" >Carl:
" >I don't think it extreme at all if one can avoid a trashed computer.
" >Carl, the problem is that many worms read the victim's address book
"
" They don't do any such thing unless you let them. Look at any attachment
" with a clean text processor first if you don't trust it. Nothing will
" happen to you.
" You can eat virii for breakfast as long as you use XYwrite.
" Do us a favour and keep this hysteria out of here.
"
" -- Rene von Rentzell, Tokyo 

	That's changed with the 'sophistication' of
	virus and trojan horse programs

	The current (for the moment) Sircam can put itself
	into the Rcycle bin of Windows too.
	Linkname: SARC Write-up - W32.Sircam.Worm@mm
    URL: http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.sircam.worm@xxxxxxxx
    Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2001 08:10:04 GMT
    size: 347 lines

	And how do you know what mailers and mail handling
	programs people are using?

	URL: http://www.sfu.ca/acs/virusbug.htm
	"It used to be that you had to open an attachment to get a virus via
	e-mail. Now you can get a virus simply by viewing a message. To
	protect yourself:
    + Delete messages from unknown senders without reading them.
    + Turn off the Preview Pane in Outlook, Netscape Mail or Eudora
     (under Options/Viewing Mail). The reason for turning it off
     is that the preview pane effectively views the message for
     you.

	Not all e-mail programs pose an equal degree of risk:
    + The riskiest e-mail programs to use are
      o Outlook (all versions)
      o Netscape Mail
      o Eudora version 4 and above
      o Pine
    + Somewhat safer is
      o Webmail
    + Safer still (assuming you don't open attachments) are
      o Elm
      o Eudora version 3"


	And XyDOS or XYwin can look at files and attachements, but
	for corporate or software compatibiltiy, Xy users may have
	to use a 'weak' email program. Who can blame them.

	I've seen the Sircam email virus often as W32.Magistr.Worm.
	about 20 times this week, but I'm using elm and it doesn't
	affect me--I don't open attachments in Windows, or use
	Windows (OS/2, Linux, Unix here).  Having its own SMTP
	program built-in, and more versions being written based
	on it all the time, it will be with us for a time yet.
	
	  Linkname: Symantec's AntiVirus Research Center
    URL: http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/

	Xywrite is a good program, but using it as a viewer isn't
	to everyone's taste for "machine-code" files.

	[ for hoaxes of emails
	   Linkname: Symantec Security Updates - Hoax Page
    URL: http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html   ]

						Daniel say

				who has a floppy with Xy and the
				Forms virus on it too in the
				DOS boot.