Archive | June 16, 2006

Vulnerability found in Microsoft Excel.

(InfoWorld) – “A new vulnerability has been found in Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet program, just a few days after the company fixed problems with several of its applications in its monthly patch distribution.”

“One customer reported an attack using the vulnerability, which comes from an e-mail with a malicious Excel document attached, wrote Mike Reavey, Microsoft Security Program Manager, on the company's security blog.”

1. Do not open attachments from untrusted sources.

2. There are no trusted sources.

Brian Livingston minces no words in his weekly Windows Secrets newsletter lead article, “Genuine Advantage is Microsoft spyware .” He goes on to say:

No PC-using company that values security and reliability can allow a program like WGA to send data to a distant server, download additional software, morph its behavior, or remotely change the functionality of Windows (as I describe below). I don't believe individuals should put up with this, either.”

This isn't a frothing-at-the-mouth, I-hate-Bill, Anything-But-Microsoft lunatic writing these words, rather it's someone who makes his living supporting Microsoft software.