E. Goldhammer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote
>The second a person clicks on your e-mail to open it to read, Norton flashes
>the KAK warning across the screen!!
>
>Change your format type from HTML to PLAIN TEXT, remove any SIGNATURES you
>have attached to your e-mail, and buy Norton Anti-virus software.
Only people who use Outlook or who choose to view the HTML part of the
messages will either see, or in the case of Outlook, suffer from the
virus.
If everyone was only to send text mail, as mail is meant to be, then
these viruses would never be a problem.
If you send messages in HTML format, as Outlook does be default (stupid
MS) there is all sorts of stuff that can be attached. Because MS seems
incapable of creating safe products, and because they give them away so
they become ubiquitous, ordinary people who know no better suffer at the
hands of malicious people.
It is the same argument as that against GM crops. If a GM wheat is
created that is so successful that everyone grows it, a single virus
could destroy the worlds grain stocks and cause a disastrous famine.
The protection against this that nature discovered some 350 million
years ago, is diversity. If there are ten different mail clients using
the same system to talk to one another, it is very difficult for a virus
to spread because the internal workings of each program is different.
The only solution to the current plague of viruses, worms, trojans etc
is for people to not automatically accept that the free mail program
included in their operating system is automatically the best one.
If you must use MS Outlook or Outlook Express, turn off HTML, turn off
automatic viewing of attachments, and get a good anti virus program.
It is worth pointing out that doing this is unlikely to limit your use
of mail, but there is no free virus software worth having.
BTW, signatures are normally plain text so I am not sure why they are a
problem. If you sent plain text mail then signature must be harmless.
--
Julian
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
National Gerbil Society
http://www.gerbils.co.uk/
