[duxuser] MSWORD .doc files are a security risk
- From: Catherine Thomas <braille@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: duxuser@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 15:53:52 -0500 (EST)
Hi, Listers,
This is not as off-topic as it sounds. In my search for a program to open
MSWORD files without using MSWORD itself, I found an article which was
absolutely frightening. It encouraged people not to email .doc files
because, when these files are opened by the recipient, they contain a lot
more than the original user ever meant to send.
Do you remember my mentioning the junk pages I got when I convert MSWORD
to ascii text? This article points out that if you lok closely, you will
see everything about a document's creation including who created it, where
it is stored on the computer, how many times it was recovered and saved,
very precise computer address info, shall I go on?
It also mentions that the transfer of .doc files can result in viruses
without doing anything else--not ot mention anyone who would want to
give viruses. The
recommendation is that no .doc files be sent as
attachments via email.
Instead, these files should be saved while still in word as either rich
text or plain text. The articles says that saving in this way deletes the
specific document creation information without damaging much of a
document's attributes or losing any of the content.
I intend to write to those of my customers who have recently sent me
things in MSWORd and point out this danger. I hope some of you will do the
same.
Catherine
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Catherine Thomas
braille@xxxxxxxxx /
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