On 1/15/03 5:26 PM, "Michael Bryan Bell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Yeah, that's fine. As a representative of MS don't you think you could show > a little more tact in how you handle the issue? I can understand your > wanting to nip any word of a mac-specific virus in the bud, and that MS has > gotten bashed horribly for their code issues, but your response to his > message is equally as baseless. Zeroth, this is my own time spent on posting here. I'm not paid for this. First, it is unfair and inaccurate to link the vulnerability of some Microsoft products to all Microsoft products. I assure you that Entourage is completely different than, oh, say IIS. :) It's like saying Mail.app can't be trusted because Apple has had a history of needing to release Security Updates to patch MacOS X and thus the coding practices of their company as a whole is not up to par. Would that be fair or accurate? Or to put it another way, were the product called Adobe Entourage X or Apple Entourage X, would this negativity still exist? Perhaps I'm wasting my time, but I'd really like to eliminate some of the unfair FUD that's associated with Microsoft MacBU products. Second, I receive the klez virus roughly 10-20 times a month. Fortunately, as a Mac user, I've never had to care about it. For me though, the second file (the "random" file) always ends up being blank - leading me to assume it was a bug in the virus. Now that I think about it, I realize that my ISP's anti-virus app is blanking out those files. Thirdly, I stand behind my advice that attachments shouldn't be opened without verification and the read the warning dialogs in Entourage. I don't see how anyone could oppose such a simple piece of advice. Here is the body of an email I received about three months ago: > Klez.E is the most common world-wide spreading worm. It's very dangerous by > corrupting your files. > > Because of its very smart stealth and anti-anti-virus technic, most common AV > software can't detect or clean it. We developed this free immunity tool to > defeat the malicious virus. > > You only need to run this tool once, and then Klez will never come into your > PC. > > NOTE: Because this tool acts as a fake Klez to fool the real worm, some AV > monitor maybe cry when you run it. If so, Ignore the warning, and select > 'continue'. If you have any question, please mail to me . [sic] Of course the attachment was none other than the klez virus (surprise surprise). I don't expect the average person, to read that and say "Oh, well that's obviously a virus." Frankly, if my parents were to receive that, I would expect that they would launch it 99% of the time. It is just an opinion, but I suspect that e-mail viruses would be reduced by over 50% if those simple rules I advise be followed. Just look at how many chain letters, pyramid schemes, urban legends, etc etc etc continue to be blindly forwarded around on the Internet. Finally, I'll use the cheap excuse that that my original message was enclosed in <rant></rant> tags and it should've been treated as such. :) Although it may not be evident from my ramblings, security really is a focus at the Entourage team. As proof, I'd like to cite that Entourage, released in October 2000, was -the- first e-mail client on the Mac to warn the customer if an AppleScript tried to send e-mail through it, and thus prevent a self-replicating worm (unless the user consciously choose to do so). And it wasn't until mid-2002 (I believe) that another Mac-email app had this same level of protection. In closing, I'd like to say that I wish I had just said that I'm 99% sure that none of the symptoms reported on this list so far look like a known virus* for Entourage. And now a contest: *First customer to respond to me with the name of the one known Entourage virus (if you could even call it that), a description of why it was such a lame attempt, and how Entourage's built-in safety measures stopped it cold, wins a set of Office X for Mac stickers. As a bonus for those who don't check their mail as often, the first customer who can tell me how many reports of this malicious code that NAI (makers of McAffee/Virex) received, will also win a prize. (It's a pretty funny answer, actually.) -- Dennis T Cheung | [EMAIL PROTECTED] This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. -- 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/>
