Michael Harney wrote:
> My question is simple, weren't these exploits in Lookout Express and Lookout
> (of course I mean Outlook, but Lookout is what I call it) patched last year?
> Anyone can go online, download the latest critical updates, and be done with
> it. Who in their right mind relies on a Mircosoft product and doesn't
> install the critical updates as they are made available? Makes no matter
> anyhow, because with all the past, present, and future exploits, only an
> idiot would run Outlook with the security settings on anything other than
> restricted sites zone, which in itself should prevent most of the exploits
> (unless the user does something stupid and choses to open the
> attatchments)... unfortunately the default settings are very relaxed in
> security, and not a lot of people know how to change those settings (and
> apparantly not a lot of people patch their software either).
Looks like you answered your own question -- basically, people are
ignorant on the issues.
A virus hit a certain large software company. They were using Outlook
as the standard e-mailer for everyone. When a person got a new system,
it would have software installed by employees of the company whose job
it was to configure systems. They didn't change the default Outlook
settings. Once the virus was brought somewhat under control (late in
the day that it had started), everyone was advised to change their
Outlook settings, and the installers were supposed to start changing
them before giving new systems to employees.
A few months later another virus hit. Apparently a significant number
of people had ignored the advice on changing their Outlook settings, and
while it wasn't as bad as the first virus incident, it was still bad
enough to bring communication via e-mail to a crawl for a day.
If even software company employees who have seen firsthand the results
of not resetting the defaults to something more sensible don't change
the settings when advised to, it's going to be even harder to get Joe
Newbie to change them. Forget getting Joe Newbie to look for updates,
even.
Julia
