FUDBusters update from November 2003

FUDBust: The worms Mossberg discusses are not Windows worms; they are Office/IE/Outlook worms. And they are possible because of the integration among Office apps. No apps under the sun are as widely deployed as these, so they're ripe targets.

According to Mossberg, to write a virus for a Mac, you would need to: 1. Write a virus specific to the OS. (No kidding); 2. Get users to run it. (Is Mossberg saying that Mac users are inherently smarter?); and 3. Gain control of root to cause damage. (Um, you need to get an admin to do harm in Windows, too.)

If you ignore these facts and believe what Mossberg says, moving to Perfect Office, Corel's productivity suite, will mean that you are 100 percent protected from such worms. Wrong! I am quite sure that there are plenty of exploitable flaws within Perfect Office. The only difference is that Corel, like Apple, has such a small market share that virus writers don't bother exploiting its programs' vulnerabilities. Bottom line: Don't believe everything you read, even in The Wall Street Journal.

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