>The little tweaks in Outlook and...(possibly some other email apps, IRCs, or other messaging systems goes here) won't last long. The computer news this morning broke a story about the next level of virus, already created, but not circulating widely yet. This is suppose to dwarf all previous viruses in security threat.
>
>The new virus launches upon just *opening* of an email app, IRC, etc, never mind opening any messages. All the current patches are completely useless, the story said. Top-level security experts are working hard to find a means to combat it, and a reward is even being offered. Didn't say how exactly how it functioned, but apparently it may be "multi-sourced" and not rely on any one tool (like WSH) alone to operate.
>
>This is an early hype-report by excited news people, we'll see how accurate the story is soon enough, I'm sure.

Yeah we got the warning this morning. What follows is it:

Greetings

CNN.COM and ZDNET online news services (and by this time, most radio stations!) are reporting of an exploit in Outlook and Outlook express that could be used by a hacker to send hostile code in e-mail. The e-mail DOESN'T have to contain an attachment for the 'bad things' to happen.

Good News Section: The vulnerability does NOT affect NAVSEA (and most corporate/government sites)

Bad News Section: The vulnerability WILL affect most home users where their mail systems use POP3 or IMAP4.

References:

ZDNET: http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2605031,00.html

CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/07/19/email.hackers.ap/index.html

Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms00-043.asp