new email virus

[Doug Yanega]

Evidently, Bubble Boy is not a "wild virus", though. It was reportedly
created in a lab, and sent directly to an anti-virus lab, and does not
exist "in the wild". From what I can tell from the various stories
emerging, it looks like it was designed as an attempt to demonstrate the
extreme security problems with MS Outlook, and NOT ever intended to get
into circulation. In other words, it appears that this was designed to
PREVENT any such actual virus from ever taking people by surprise - by
scaring Microsoft into making a patch to fix a problem they otherwise might
have pretended didn't exist - so now everyone using Outlook is forewarned
and forearmed, and that can only be a good thing. Sort of like announcing
"I have devised a way to make all new GM car engines explode by remote
control, exploiting a flaw in the new computer controls!" in order to force
GM to issue an upgrade to fix the problem, before someone who has a
*genuinely* malicious intent figures out the trick and starts killing
people.
If this is really the story, then whoever created Bubble Boy should be
applauded. Interesting twist, huh?

Peace,


Dr. Douglas Yanega     Dept. of Entomology         Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California - Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521
phone: (909) 787-4315 (standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
                http://insects.ucr.edu/staff/yanega.html
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82