Preview pane

[JimO]

ACcording to one Slip Stick article, it claims that in
Office versions 2000 and later the Preview pane will
_not_ execute html viruses (virii?). Is this correct? Are
we able to actually use the Autopreview and Preview pane
with confidence? I have always been told these features
were big problems for security. I also thought I had read
somewhere on Microsoft's Knowledge Base that this was the
case, but I cannot find the article. Could someone point
me to some hard facts please?

 

[Craft]

Hard fact: viruses is the plural of virus.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=virus

Craft

 

[Steven M (remove cola to reply)]

ACcording to one Slip Stick article, it claims that in
Office versions 2000 and later the Preview pane will
_not_ execute html viruses (virii?). Is this correct? Are
we able to actually use the Autopreview and Preview pane
with confidence? I have always been told these features
were big problems for security. I also thought I had read
somewhere on Microsoft's Knowledge Base that this was the
case, but I cannot find the article. Could someone point
me to some hard facts please?

I don't know what the latest is, but this page suggests that the
Preview Pane issue was fixed:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;316658&Product=out2K

Several other web pages say that the Preview Pane is not the problem.

http://www.claymania.com/preview-pane.html
"So, turning off the preview pane won't save you much pain and may
only lead to a false sense of security"

I do know that Outlook 2000 with SP-3 will still attempt to connect to
the Internet and show graphics that are referenced in HTML email.

Some spammers include graphics in their email, that act as signals to
the spammer that their email got opened and read.

You can turn that off with the following setup, and the help of the
software firewall ZoneAlarm:

1. Put A limited number of URL's and IP blocks are in the "Trusted
Zone". This includes my ISP's mail servers and a few other services
that I trust.

2. Outlook is controlled so that it can only access Internet sites in
the Trusted Zone.

If somebody sends me HTML mail with a link to graphic, Outlook is
blocked from downloading the graphic.