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Re: Beware of Virus



At 18:29 11/14/97 -0500, you wrote:
>
>As well, for all of you who know nothing about programming, and for those
>of you who do, a good programmer friend of mine assures me with hidden
>encryption it is possible to send destructive information; albeit hard
>drive eradication is virtually unheard of.
>
As an engineer and programmer myself, I would be interested in knowing how
ANY data sent in a TEXT file could possibly hurt the processor reading it.
It's sorta like FAXing someone a stick of dynamite..

Unless the encrypted stuff is unscrambled at the target - and you need to
run a program to do this - and then executed - it's harmless!

The Microsoft Word macro virus is very real - I got hit, as did all my
customer's machines - luckily, it was machines they owned, not mine!
Microsoft sure made a grand mistake putting so much macro capability into a
word processor!

One thing to beware of is 'Java scripts' that are sent by some Web sites to
Java capable browsers. The browser can run these just like a program,
thereby opening a door into your machine. Most browsers let you decide
whether to run one of these or not, but in the future I am sure there's
going to be a flood of trouble from that source!

The best defense is not to unzip any files that you don't know the source
of..and never run a program without checking it for a virus first..

On a Scirocco note - my daugnter got her first ticket - rolling through a
stop sign! She has been driving carefully so far, and no scratches on the
car - she is even doing her own maintenance without being reminded. Proud of
that girl!


Chuck Kuecker

ckuecker@mcs.net

'83 Scirocco (Katy's car now)
'58 Ghia Convert
'75 Bug (painted!)
'67 Bug
'63 Bug (*still* for sale)
'91 Vanagon


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