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Outlook’s Security Tightened, at Cost of Convenience

Microsoft will this week release two new security measures aimed at helping
to prevent the spread of “I Love You”-type computer viruses via the company’
s widely-used Outlook e-mail program. The security enhancement will be
available as free downloads from the Office Update Web site.

The Outlook Email Security Update limits certain functionality within
Outlook in order to provide the improved security for users and still will
not completely eliminate the threat posed by virus-infected attachments to
e-mail messages, a Microsoft official acknowledged.

The security update will prevent users from accessing several file types
when sent as e-mail attachments. These include executable code or programs,
batch files and other file types that contain code used to spread viruses.
In addition, a new dialog box will appear when an external program attempts
to access their Outlook address book or send e-mail on the user’s behalf.

The recent “I Love You” virus and the earlier “Melissa” virus both spread as
attachments which proliferated via Outlook address books of infected
computers. The “I Love You” virus affected some 45 million computers around
the globe, prompting widespread criticism of Microsoft for failing to build
adequate security measures into Outlook and Windows.

With the update, Outlook’s default security setting for the program’s
“Internet security zone” will be at “restricted” rather than “trusted” as
the program has set it in the past. The restricted zone disables most
automatic scripting and ActiveX controls from opening without the user’s
permission. Users who prefer less security can change their settings to
trusted zone.

These security enhancements are available for users of Outlook 98 and
Outlook 2000. Those using Outlook 2000 will have to download Service Release
1 (SR-1) prior to installing the update. SR-1 contains additional security
provisions.

The new warning to users that a program is attempting to access their
address book could be helpful in halting the spread of viruses, industry
experts said. But many questioned Microsoft’s decision to block attachments
with executable code. There are many valid reasons for attaching programs to
e-mails, they note, especially in high-tech companies. As a result, some
users may see this enhancement as seriously reducing the usefulness of the
Outlook program.

Microsoft’s upgrade does not allow the user or computer administrators to
let some types of executable code through while excluding others. The
company acknowledges that once the upgrade has been installed, it’s security
features cannot be removed or turned off.

“Once you install it, that’s it, you’re done,” a Microsoft executive told
the Bloomberg news service. “That was the toughest thing we had to grapple
with, balancing flexibility and extensibility with security.”

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