On Dec 8, 2:51pm in "More on virus stuff....", you warbled: ] ] The systems man in our place says: ] ] of damage being caused by rogue email. Most unix systems have DEC ] compatible keyboards connected, and one famous mail message consisted of ] unprintable control codes that redefined the keyboard, so that a particular ] key would send a string of characters to the host ( usually cd / <return> ] and rm -r * ) if you were root or a privileged user then damage would occur.
Oh christ. Anyone who reads mail as a priveledged user is ASKING for it. Get real. ] Microsoft mail and Lotus CCmail are two of the most common mail programs ] installed on PCs, both these mail programs allow for custom messages, ie ] Schedule Plus, message acceptance, It is possible to write ( using simple ] Visual basic ) specific message types that could do damage.' Ok then. DON'T USE THEM. This is a major problem with PCs - the software authors are so fucking clever they think that everyone else is stupid - so they make it so that you don't have any say as to what the software does any more. NO program should run another program without your knowledge. In a way, if the above is true, CCmail and MSMail are violating the Data Protection Act, by allowing others unauthorised access to your system. If they have an option of disallowing this function, then all well and good. If not, I wouldn't touch them with a 100ft bargepole. Geoff
