An excerpt form Woody's Office Watch (an email mewsletter, so can't post a URL - sorry)
..My thanks to The Office Letter for the heads-up on this one. Microsoft didn't bother to notify their customers directly. No press release. No notice to users. No security bulletin. Just an email message to one journalist. Figures - Microsoft aren't interested in keeping customers informed, just keeping them in the dark. Anyone who thinks that spy codes aren't much of a problem takes Microsoft statements (lies and all) at face value. In this case the fact that Redmond is saying very little and not even following their own security procedures (bulletins etc) is a sure sign that this is a big problem that the company wants to hide. If you haven't heard of the Word Spy Code Bug, then its a field code (NOT a macro, so not detected by Anti-virus software) which can be put into a Wrod document, which will snaffle any file the 'Spy' chooses, unseen, and hide it in the document, so that when it is sent back to the author, the author can then recover the hidden document! Works automatically in Word 97 and 2000, and only requires you to print or edit the document on Word XP before returning it. And from later in the same newsletter: 6. WORD EFFLUVIA NAILS BOGUS "SWITCHER" ........SNIP The article is accompanied by a picture of a lovely lass holding a coffee cup - which turned out to be completely bogus. (It's a stock photo.) The text of the article makes it clear that the "Convert" is a 5-foot-3-inch lady, with a six-foot husband. But she isn't identified anywhere. Microsoft has since pulled the "Mac to PC Convert" page, but you can still see Google's snapshot at http://216.239.53.100/search?q=cache:JmwQcVoG-ucJ:www.microsoft.com/insider/ opsystems/windowsxp_setup.asp Ted Bridis at the Associated Press (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/aptech_story.asp?category=1700&slug= Microsoft%20Ad ) says that the mysterious lady who confessed to being a Convert actually works for one of Microsoft's public relations agencies, and she was hired by Microsoft to do the ad. AP found clues to her identity in "hidden references" contained in "documents accompanying the ad." ........SNIP Lies lies and more lies! If Linux did that, Microsoft would be the first to complain! STRINGER & SON per: David J H Stringer STRINGER & SON, - For all your legal work; P O Box 1386 CHRISTCHURCH NEW ZEALAND Phone 64 - 3 - 366 1152 FAX 64 - 3 - 366 1151
