Politially correct torture, beat you up, then give you a questioinare on how you 'felt'... ;-) ----- Original Message ----- From: "William Chops Westfield" To: "Microcontroller discussion list - Public." Sent: Thursday, November 24, 2005 10:22 PM Subject: Re: [OT] Worm alert > > >>> ... threat that looks like an official e-mail from the CIA or FBI > >>> but can leave your computer wide open to intruders. > > > Perhaps if you have a very guilty conscience. The one I received was > from 'department@cia.gov' and contained significant grammar errors. > Besides, I know as an american that if the CIA gets mad at me, they'll > come knocking down my door with a swat team, not send some reasonably > polite email, cause I watch TV! Shucks, with the stuff I do rather > openly, I'll probably just disappear to a 'camp' in cuba... > > > > Since I use Gmail, I feel safer than people browsing their mail on a > > dedicated mail program (Thunderbird, Outlook, etc.). > > > > Does anyone have a feel for the veracity of that? > > Gmail, or yahoo, or other web-based email systems, insert presumably > highly-supported, well maintained, carefully monitored, and very > up-to-date email client software in between you and any viruses or > worms/etc that might be out there. I would think the involved > companies have a very strong interest in NOT seeing such malware > propagated. In addition, malware that exploits actual bugs in the > client software (buffer overflow cracks and such) would end up > attacking the host software and not your PC software. However, > web browsers are equally guilty to most pc clients in that their > ease-of-use features still allow you to easily do stupid things > like 'click on the attachment', so "social engineering cracks" > like this one wouldn't seem to be much safer read either way. And > browsers have their own list of crackable bugs... > > BillW > > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > > -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist