[svlug] On Hoof and Mouth

[Smitty]

FOOT-AND-MOUTH BELIEVED TO BE FIRST VIRUS UNABLE TO SPREAD THROUGH
MICROSOFT OUTLOOK

Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Symantec's AntiVirus
Research Center today confirmed that foot-and-mouth disease cannot be
spread by Microsoft's Outlook email application, believed to be the
first
time the program has ever failed to propagate a major virus.

"Frankly, we've never heard of a virus that couldn't spread through
Microsoft Outlook, so our findings were, to say the least, unexpected,"
said Clive Sarnow, director of the CDC's infectious disease unit....

Executives at Microsoft, meanwhile, were equally skeptical, insisting
that
Outlook's patented Virus Transfer Protocol (VTP) has proven virtually
pervious to any virus. The company, however, will issue a free VTP patch
if
it turns out the application is not vulnerable to foot-and-mouth.