Cringely: Email Viruses and Dangerous Cures
Robert X. Cringely’s latest column talks about email viruses. I find myself agreeing with Cringely less and less these days. Either he’s getting old or I am… Cringely seems to think there are two solutions to the problem of email virii: (1) Nobody should use Outlook. Wrong, of course. Although diversity would be a good thing, Outlook can be secured. Even if you use Microsoft’s brain-damaged security fix, you won’t be affected by these EXE file trojans. Or you could just not click on them… (2) Virus scanners for email. Wrong. Virus scanners are always playing catch-up with virus writers, and if that ever changes, you should look with suspicion at the antivirus companies… if you don’t already. Here’s where it gets interesting. He mentions that Symantec’s Norton e-mail anti-virus actually redirects your mail through their server in the background. It apparently doesn’t even warn you that it’s stealing your Outlook password and using it to access your mail from its own servers. Cringely’s concern about this little ‘feature’ is certainly justified. I would worry far more about Symantec sifting through millions of emails and sending you advertisements for products you happened to mention in a private email than I worry about email viruses. If you’ve been hit by one, do us all a favor and protect yourself the sensible way.