And the continuing story of the Mac infallibility fallacy ...
(where the Virus alert that I sent yesterday left off)

If you use Microsoft Word, many of the
thousands of macro viruses created for Windows version of Word will
infect a Macintosh version of Word just fine. In addition, recent
reports regarding a new variant of the infamous Melissa virus are of
concern. The original version of Melissa spread worldwide via e-mail
two years ago by sending copies of itself to the top 50 addresses in
Outlook (not Outlook Express) address books.

This version is in Word 2001 for Macintosh format, perhaps created
accidentally by a user with that software who opened a Windows Word
document infected with Melissa. Aiding its spread is the fact that
antivirus vendors have not included this new Macintosh Word format in
their programming, and the fact that the variant functions under both
the Macintosh and Windows versions of Microsoft Office's Word. Of
great concern to many businesses is the fact that infected documents
forwarded by the virus remain intact, and may therefore contain
confidential data from the infected user's computer. Ouch.

While Outlook Express users can receive an infected document with this
new Melissa variant, only Outlook users can spread it. Those using
Windows 95 do not have to worry about this variant, and those not
using Word do not have to worry about Word macro viruses at all.

Angeline Martin-Studdard wrote:

> You've got that right!
>
> Angeline Martin
>
> >Date: 31 Jan 2001 12:23:01 -0600
> >From: Lesley Weston <lesley@interchange.ubc.ca>
> >Subject: Re: email attachments and infections
>
> >Unless you have a Mac, of course.
>
> >Lesley Weston.