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On Mon, 25 Jul 2005 14:42:40 +1200, Samuel W. Heywood
<sheywood@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hello:
On my Window$ 95 computer I use Opera 6.05 for web surfing.
I don't use Opera's built-in email client, M2. When doing
email I usually run a DOS-based email client in a different
computer being a pure DOS machine, or I will run Pine on a
remote server.
I avoid running Window$-based email clients on my computer for
reasons of computer security concerns.
The questions I have about using Opera's built-in email client
are these:
1. Can the mere opening and reading of an email message by using
Opera's built-in email client cause my machine to become
infected? I am talking about just opening the message and not
double clicking on any attachments which might be included.
I know that there are some Window$-based email clients, most
notably Outlook, that will will automatically run viruses and
infect your computer just by your opening an email message.
Have there ever been any credible reports of any similar such
bizarre behavior with Opera's built-in email client?
No. Opera does not load or run any scripts contained in or external to
HTML emails, and such behaviour can not be enabled. Also, Opera by default
does not request and retrieve images from webservers if they are linked
from emails (these can be enabled).
2. Does Opera's built-in email client always offer the operator
the option to save an attachment to a file, and to save the
attachment in such a manner so that it does not "open" and run"
merely as a result of your trying to save the attachment to a
file?
Yes, it does. If you read a message with an attached virus, Opera will
save a copy of the attachment to its cache, but will not execute it unless
you deliberately command it to do so. Note that the saving to cache will
trigger most Anti-virus software (which monitors all files written to
disk). If you get an alert, the best behaviour is to dismiss the alert ,
move focus to another message, right-click the infected message and select
"delete". Do NOT let the AV software quarantine or disinfect the mailbox
as these actions will make Opera's mail unusable or corrupt your indexes.
Do you still receive viruses? I haven't seen one for about a year due to
scanners on my mail servers.
--
Using M2, Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/
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