R
Richard Steinfeld
I recently asked for advice here about stand-alone spell checkers
for use with Outlook Express. Today, I got an email with the
subject "spell."
It began, "From: "WillofAustralia_crackerz2" <[email protected]>"
The plain text body of Will's message consisted of these six
words:
"With Kind Regards From WillofAustralia. Victoria."
The message contained two attachments:
name="Sign_William Smith.png"
and the file "setup.exe."
The remainder of the message consisted of a long run of HTML,
beginning,
"------=_NextPart_002_003F_01C439D3.2AB675E0
Content-Type: text/html;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable"
and on and on and on...
It appears that Will sent me a nice spell program, no?
Man, if this doesn't look like some nasty malware, Will needs a
lesson in how not to present himself as a purveyor of viruses.
Dig it:
- I don't accept encoded emails. HTML belongs on the Web, not
here. It's a route for system attack. I block it. If you want me
to read your email, send it in plain text the way email was
originally intended to work, as it evolved from ASCII teletype
standards. I also don't accept HTML attachments. Having suffered
two nasty virus infections carried home from a major telephone
company, I just don't take chances.
- I really don't appreciate emails or newsgroup posts that
consist of a single word or posts that consist of only a URL. I
don't know Will from a hole in the wall. Perhaps Will was trying
to do me a favor. I've got no way of knowing that. A short
explanation can work wonders, even just a sentence. Otherwise, it
looks like someone who couldn't be bothered with being understood
at the other end, someone who just can't relate to the issue that
communication takes place between two people, someone who needs
to spend a semester in "communications 101." Remember that
there's another person reading the post at the other end. Don't
just confuse them. Put some effort into communicating clearly if
you have anything to say. That is, unless you like talking to
yourself.
- An unexplained attachment with the filename "setup.exe" should
set everybody's alarm bells blasting; this is Red Alert! You run
an unknown "setup.exe," your computer is running Russian Roulette
with itself. (So that I won't appear a hypocrite like our
President, I'll attempt an effort at communication; let me just
say that this file name is typically used to install programs:
any programs: for example, a program that eats the contents of
your hard drive.)
So, Will, if you're not a virus purveyor, please reply with a
sentence or two that will make me want to trust you. I'd really
like to try your spell program and I'd really like to feel
grateful to you and send you a hearty "thank you."
Richard
for use with Outlook Express. Today, I got an email with the
subject "spell."
It began, "From: "WillofAustralia_crackerz2" <[email protected]>"
The plain text body of Will's message consisted of these six
words:
"With Kind Regards From WillofAustralia. Victoria."
The message contained two attachments:
name="Sign_William Smith.png"
and the file "setup.exe."
The remainder of the message consisted of a long run of HTML,
beginning,
"------=_NextPart_002_003F_01C439D3.2AB675E0
Content-Type: text/html;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable"
and on and on and on...
It appears that Will sent me a nice spell program, no?
Man, if this doesn't look like some nasty malware, Will needs a
lesson in how not to present himself as a purveyor of viruses.
Dig it:
- I don't accept encoded emails. HTML belongs on the Web, not
here. It's a route for system attack. I block it. If you want me
to read your email, send it in plain text the way email was
originally intended to work, as it evolved from ASCII teletype
standards. I also don't accept HTML attachments. Having suffered
two nasty virus infections carried home from a major telephone
company, I just don't take chances.
- I really don't appreciate emails or newsgroup posts that
consist of a single word or posts that consist of only a URL. I
don't know Will from a hole in the wall. Perhaps Will was trying
to do me a favor. I've got no way of knowing that. A short
explanation can work wonders, even just a sentence. Otherwise, it
looks like someone who couldn't be bothered with being understood
at the other end, someone who just can't relate to the issue that
communication takes place between two people, someone who needs
to spend a semester in "communications 101." Remember that
there's another person reading the post at the other end. Don't
just confuse them. Put some effort into communicating clearly if
you have anything to say. That is, unless you like talking to
yourself.
- An unexplained attachment with the filename "setup.exe" should
set everybody's alarm bells blasting; this is Red Alert! You run
an unknown "setup.exe," your computer is running Russian Roulette
with itself. (So that I won't appear a hypocrite like our
President, I'll attempt an effort at communication; let me just
say that this file name is typically used to install programs:
any programs: for example, a program that eats the contents of
your hard drive.)
So, Will, if you're not a virus purveyor, please reply with a
sentence or two that will make me want to trust you. I'd really
like to try your spell program and I'd really like to feel
grateful to you and send you a hearty "thank you."
Richard
