Item Subject: cc:Mail Text
Wired magazine has an interesting article on research (at IBM's Thomas J.
Watson Research Center) for fighting macro viruses. The article begins:

        It is estimated that 10 to 15 new Word macro viruses--
        the most common breed of computer virus--are discovered
        each DAY. [emphasis added]

The article is at
        <http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/8938.html>

(The "/news/news" above is not a typo.)


<editorial>
I haven't had to use a word processor at a client site in 9 months (I
wouldn't want to--Lotus Ami Pro is *awful*), and at home I use Word 5 for
the Macintosh. Word 5 is not "virus-enabled," and it can read Word 6 (and
later) documents with ease.

Microsoft is more than aware of the problem. The article referenced above
has a single link, and the last paragraph of the linked article (dated
April 15, 1997) begins:

        "'Macro viruses' are a huge industry problem," says
        Christine Winkel, product manager at Microsoft, "and we
        are working closely with the antivirus community to make
        [macros] safer."

Considering it's their product that makes it easy to write macro viruses in
the first place--and makes it easy for the infection to occur--
...well, I guess I should stop while I'm not too far behind.
</editorial>


--Glenn Cole
  Software al dente, Inc.
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