Re: security with OE preview question

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From: Pop (nobody_at_spamcop.net)
Date: 10/01/04 

Date: Fri, 1 Oct 2004 19:27:03 -0400

Tom, if you'll bear with me, I have a couple item about your
post. You sound like you have the answers, but I would like to
clarify/confirm and maybe ask a question:

"Tom Koch" <spamtrap@insideoe.tomsterdam.com> wrote in message
news:uIA2vJzpEHA.692@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
| "FireBrick" <w9ol.nospam@comcast.com> wrote in message
| news:egp%23C9ypEHA.3868@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl
| > You hear constantly NOT to open an email from an unknown
source.
| From whom do you hear that constantly? It is not true.
==> Isn't it really more like irrelevant?

|
| > Using OE, is viewing it in the Preview Pane the same as
opening the
| > email?
| Yes.
==> If, symanticly, "opening" is "reading" or "displaying" the
email. IFF the body of an email downloads onto your machine,
even though you don't pyscially display it, then it has been
"opened". However, if all you bring down off the server is the
Header Info, and NOT the body, then you have not "read" or
"opened" the email.
Right?
   Also, I've found that a lot of people misunderstand what the
"Preview Pane" is. Some think it's the (usually) top set of
columns with the Subject, From, Size, Date/Time, et al in it. To
others, it's the body of the email showing below the top list.
   I have a reason for all this doggerel; please be patient.

|
| > Now I use email virus detection, so I'm not extremely
worried,
| > just curious.
|
| I recommend you disable the email anti-virus scan.
==> I respectfully submit that (opinion, of course) the email
scan is useful. It alerts me almost instantly that there is a
virus present and tells me where it's at. I prefer to react
immediately to a virus arrival, although they are far and few
between these days, in my case at least. It doesn't slow
anything down noticeably and doesn't hog resources, so ... what
IS the reason for disabling it? Other than the possible
speed/resource issues I mean.
   Just curious whether I'm missing something obvious.

| ...
Leave your system AV
| scan though. It is not opening an e-mail that infects your
computer. It
| is opening an *attachment* to an e-mail that can infect your
computer,
| if the *attachment* is in fact a virus, worm or Trojan Horse.
If you
| open an infected *attachment*, your system AV scan will stop it
from
| infecting your computer. If it fails to stop it at that point,
it would
| not have stopped it in the e-mail scan if you had that running.
==> Agreed, but by then you may easily have lost the source of
the virus, which can be important, especially if it came from a
friend's infected computer. That's happened to me a couple of
times and I was glad to be able to help my friend/s out.
Unfortunately though, in reality, it usually meant a trip to
their house to "educate" them.

|
| There was a time a few years ago, when Outlook Express 5 was
new, that a
| virus was released that could run automatically as soon as you
opened
| the email itself. But even back then, Microsoft had already
released a
| patch to close that hole some time before the virus ever
appeared.
==> Are you intimating that the patched OE5 could not allow an
infection if it were patched?
        And that IE6 was/is/will be safe as far as reasonably
known?

Since
| then, Outlook Express has become more and more secure. If you
use the
| default security settings in Outlook Express, there is no virus
that can
| run automatically.
==> Which default settings? I -think- the defaults from 5 to 6
changed, and they definitely changed with SP2, along with a host
of other things. I'm not asking you to go do any research, but
can you name the defaults off the top of your head? Many OEM's
also managed to change defaults in my experience, especially Dell
at one time a couple years back.

|
| Do not open attachments from any source unless it passes the
| safe-computing basics.
| * You know the sender
| and
| * You were expecting the attachment and know what it is
supposed to do
| and
| * Your computer is up-to-date with security updates
| and
| * You have an updated anti-virus program scanning your system
==> AGREED |

| --
| ----Please post questions and replies in the newsgroups----
| Tom Koch - MVP for Internet Explorer and Outlook Express
| Awareness is free.
| Inside Outlook Express: http://insideOE.tomsterdam.com
|

Great website, Tom!!
Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I use it often when I want to
figure something out. Yous is one of my top five sites. KUDOS.

Regards,

Pop

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