[PD] [CALL FOR ACTION] about worms and virusses

richard.bowers at ntlworld.com richard.bowers at ntlworld.com
Tue Jan 29 17:24:06 CET 2002


I know that MSWindows is rather like a sieve when considering security - although I suspect 
much of the viral attacks are directed at MS products specifically for polital or other reasons. 
With the exponential growth in worms in recent times (I have been hit many times via Outlook) 
I chose to go with Pegasus Mail and I am pleased with the result. At the very least, you can 
download headers only and cast a judicious eye over the subject lines, senders etc. For this 
reason I avoided, as far as I can tell, infection from the recent "myparty" worm.

Is there no facility within Outlook Express to retrieve just headers? I couldn't find it. I'm sure it 
would go a long way towards screening malicious emails assuming (as ever) that the user 
observes such precautions. I'd be interested to know if it's possible. (I note the 
recommendation below regarding patch updates).

--Richard

On 29 Jan 2002 at 13:44, Norbert Math wrote:

> 
> hello,
> 
> as you have noticed, the myparty worm made its way to the pd
> mailing list despite the virus scanner i have installed - 
> the virus was sent out before i got the new virus identification
> from sophos. 
> 
> because obviously the idetifications are released after
> a worm spreads in the wild a virus scanner can not offer 
> much security when new species are coming out. 
> 
> therefore i kindly ask you to a less exploitable program 
> then outlook - if you use outlook your security updates may still 
> come too late as it was the case with my mail scanner ...
> 
> norbert
>   
> 
> On Tue, 29 Jan 2002, mark wrote:
> 
> > > 
> > > TO ALL PPL. USING OUTLUCK :
> > > 
> > > switch to another email client. use netscape,
> > > eudora or whatever. but dont use outluck.
> > > damn, is it really so hard to do that ??
> > 
> > For a lot of people it is a corporate standard and 
> > they HAVE to use it. That said if you apply the 
> > latest patches from microsoft (choose "windows
> > update" in internet explorer - it doesn't send 
> > info to microsoft so do it even if you have a 
> > pirate copy) then you won't have any of 
> > these issues - it blocks access to attachments 
> > and scripts so you have to make a real effort 
> > to open them.
> > 
> > cheers 
> > 
> > mark
> > 
> > 
> > 
> 
> 





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