> I know this is off-topic but it has been puzzling me for the last week. > Other Entourage users might also be interested to know. I don't know of > anywhere else to ask. > > I have received many email messages recently which are meant to be viruses. > Of course they stop dead with me, since I use Entourage, but how is it that > they can affect Windows users? Aren't they just attachments? Don't you need > to open them for them to take effect? Is this just people not realising that > the attachment is a virus, or is something else happening?
There are many viruses that spread this way -- you have to open them to get infected. Many of them are very tricky in that they'll name something "neatpicture.jpg.exe". When PC users double click on it, they expect to see a picture, but they're actually running a program. Other viruses in the past took advantage of the fact that the Windows version of Outlook would actually run Visual Basic scripts embedded in the email for display. Just by trying to display the email you could infect yourself. I think this problem has been fixed for awhile. The worm you've been hearing about lately is different. It probes certain ports, looking for a specific vulnerability in Windows. If the OS patch hasn't been applied, you're in trouble. Macs running OS X are immune to this particular worm and most similar problems because their firewalls default to on and are pretty restrictive. The OS is a lot more secure anyway because of its unix underpinnings. I wish more Windows users could watch me smile and get work done on my Mac while they're having to deal with all these problems. =) - B -- To unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.letterrip.com/> old-archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.boingo.com/>
