Testing Prescott

By Jerry Pournelle

February 16, 2004

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Column 283

This month we mostly look at hardware. The software of the month is Microsoft OneNote, which I have recommended before for Windows users. This is Tornado Notes, sticky notes, and all those other free form data bases combined with a word processor. Save pictures, doodles (if you have a Tablet or Wacom drawing pad), voice recordings, and anything else into a single document that you can search and edit. It will make your life simpler; at least it has for me.

The Virus Scene

As I write this, my mailbox is flooded with "returned" mail carrying one or another version of the Mydoom virus. Of course I didn't send any such mail: Someone who had my address in his mailbox got infected, and the virus appropriated me as the fake sender.

I also have frantic mail from readers: Someone's computer was infected by a virus carrying the reader's return address. In one case the reader is a Mac user. Macs can't be infected by any variant of Mydoom I know of, but his military unit was infected by the virus and the infecting agent bore his return address: Was his computer now a "Typhoid Mary" spreading this horror? Of course not: Once again, his return address was faked. And someone in his unit opened a mail attachment: That's how the infection spreads.

Mydoom doesn't execute itself. You must open an e-mail attachment to be infected. The attachment may appear to be a document, but it isn't one. Note that the "from" address is faked, so this can look as if it came from anyone (including yourself). As usual there are two protections: Keep your anti-virus software up to date, and do not open unexpected e-mail attachments. Verify that something that looks like an e-mail attachment came from the person it is supposed to have come from. Even when you know the source, look at the file extension: A file that is named myfile.doc.exe or myfile.doc.pdf is not a document, even if it has a document icon!

Don't open unexpected e-mail attachments. What I tell you three times is true.

Prescott

The newest machine at Chaos Manor is a 3.2

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