Force Byte - An update on Microsoft IE 5.5
This time I would like to update you on Internet Explorer (IE) version 5.5, a browsing tool used to explore the Internet, and also used by the Force.
Recently you may have heard rumours regarding security vulnerability of IE 5.5. It allows a malicious user to run an executable e-mail attachment on your computer. This exists because IE 5.5 does not handle the MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) header in HTML e-mails properly. If you open an affected HTML e-mail sent by a malicious user or visit a web site that has an affected e-mail host, the browser will automatically run the attached executable files on your computer, which may add, change, or delete data, communicate with web sites, or reformat your hard drive.
To eliminate these problems the Office Automation team, under the Information Technology Branch, distributed the corresponding patch to all Force workstations on October 5. This update will eliminate security vulnerability by correcting the way the browser handles MIME headers in HTML e-mails so that it will no longer automatically launch any executable attachments.
Should you wish to learn more about this particular topic, please visit the following web site:http://www.microsoft.com/ technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/bulletin/ MS01-020.asp
Note: MIME is a widely used Internet standard for encoding binary files as e-mail attachments. When an e-mail contains a binary attachment, it must specify what type of file the attachment is, so the mail program can interpret it correctly.
See you next time!
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Email address: ap2-ss34-a-itb@police. gov.hk