On Tue, 15 Apr 1997, Harry Munir Behrens wrote:
> Mike's mail is obviously meant as a joke! Of course M$ is NOT going
> to scan for a copy of Netscape Navigator and infect it with a virus or
> automatically debit your creadit card!
Just in case there is any confusion (while the sarcasm level on this list
may be high, its apparency is not) there are pages that have embedded
Active-X controls that when visited by MSIE (the only browser currently
supporting Active-X) they will, in fact, scan your harddrive for a copy of
Quicken or MS-Money and set them up to automatically debit your account by
transferring funds from your account to theirs. Of course, in order for
this to happen, you have to allow the Active-X through (most people turn
off the dialog boxes anyhow, so this _is_ a problem) and do online
banking. I don't know the number of people who fit this profile, but the
possibility is out there. There are also pages that if visited using MSIE
on an Intel machine will shut the machine off, or at least, close the
operating system (some computers will turn off when Win95 exits). Likewise,
it would be trivial to put a virus on your computer using these methods.
"Gee, what is this 'readme.doc'? I don't remember writing that..." This
can be considered a biased opinion, but anyone remotely interested in
security (such as those on a firewall list) should avoid MS products and
especially "innovations" as the dearth of security they are. Then again,
when dealing with MS, the firewall is probably the first line of defense.
Too bad not everyone will set up a (non-MS) firewall at home.
Flames to /dev/null,
Christopher
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