[X Newbies] Functions in Virex 7

[Steven Rogers]

On Wednesday, June 4, 2003, at 07:47 AM, Ross Langmead wrote:

> Yes, it is a Windows virus (W97), which is not strictly to do with OS 
> X.  I take it that we are just vulnerable because we don't have active 
> antivirus protection on OS X.
>
> The virus seems to do nothing to our machines except spread. It's 
> transmitted on Word documents we create and presses alarm bells for PC 
> users who receive them.  At this stage it is only our reputation that 
> is suffering.

That would be a Word macro virus, not a Windows virus. I'm not sure 
what the limits of these scripts are in OS X, but I suspect they can do 
almost anything to your files. At least they can do things like change 
the author of your documents to "Big Dummy", put silly comments into 
the other document attributes, etc. If you have outlook, it can 
probably script the sending of mail too. If its like other 
cross-platform functions in the office environment, there's a good 
chance that the script will only halfway work on the Mac.

One of these swept the executive computers at a place I once worked and 
went out with a bunch of proposals before anyone noticed. Not good when 
you're trying to look computer-smart.

SR