Microsoft Changes Its Outlook, Making E-mail Somewhat Safer.
Written: May 21 '00 (Updated Jul 31 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Its everywhere and runs most of the world's e-mail traffic
Cons: Until now was very prone to viral worm attack
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| Schinjay's Full Review: Microsoft Outlook Express |
As The Nursery Rhyme Goes
Microsoft Changes Its Outlook
The worms came in. The worms came out.
The worms wreaked havoc without a doubt.
Got choked by mail; couldn’t catch their breath.
The servers died, an untimely death.
This new version of a timeless nursery rhyme was brought to you by all of the creators, from around the globe, who shared their wonderful little virtual luv worm, joke worm, or “whatever” worm packages with all of us since the first of the year.
It became evident during these episodes of malaise that Microsoft had huge red targets drawn on their Outlook and Outlook Express products. It also appeared they were never going to fess up to their responsibility and make security changes that would make it safe to use these programs in the wild ever again.
But Microsoft now seems ready to step up to the plate and make a solid hit with a new upcoming e-mail attachment security update. Apparently they will unveil the new patch in the next week or so, and their millions of Outlook customers in the world can’t wait.
When Microsoft heard all the noise,
Big Bill said “Come up with something, boys.”
So they worked days and they worked nights,
To save the world from this wormy blight.
The security patch will be made available for Outlook 97, 98 and 2000 and will make three changes to the way Outlook handles any e-mail attachments you may receive. As such, these changes will make the program much more secure from viral worm attack, but at the same time will make receiving legitimate e-mail attachments somewhat less convenient.
First, the program will no longer allow attachments with files utilizing many common executable extensions, such as .exe, .vbs, etc. When Outlook detects attached files of these types, it will strip them from the e-mail and discard them. And they won’t tell us where they are taking them. Kind of like virtual kidnapping, if you will.
The second major change in Outlook will be to warn the user in dialog box form that a program is trying to gain access to their Outlook address book. This was the lifeblood of the latest Internet worms, you know. They gnawed their way into your address book, and replicated themselves all over your friends listed there. Ooh, Gross!
There will also be changes to the auto-send feature of Outlook so that a lot of illicit mailing can’t go on without your knowing it. Take that, wormheads!
The third big change will force you to save attachments to a separate directory on your hard drive so that any evil attached files will be isolated from your e-mail directory. When such a file is clicked on to open, dialog boxes will warn you of virus possibilities and give you the opportunity to run your anti-virus program on the file before opening. You’re bird food, wormface!
Now there is a way for you to receive legitimate attachments from friends and loved ones when you need to. The best way would be to have them attach their file as a zipped file. That way you can open the file with your favorite flavor of “unzip” program and run your anti-virus protection before opening the attached file. I would do this, no matter who sent it to you. Just don’t tell them, so their feelings won’t be hurt.
These critical Microsoft updates certainly fall in the “better-late-than-never” category as far as many are concerned. Like those that lost the millions of bucks from e-mail server crashes since the first of this year. But for the rest of the Microsoft Outlook users out there, it’s about time.
The worms crawl in; get pushed aside.
We sniff them out and we peal their hide.
They get stretched out; we kick their rear.
They’re told they better not come back here.
That's my epinion! Mahalo for stopping by!
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
Schinjay
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Member: Steve Schindler
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Reviews written: 37
Trusted by: 58 members
About Me:
Steve Schindler writes his informative and humorous "Schindler's Cyber List" for epinions.com.
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