Date Posted:14:16:02 07/20/02 Sat Author: AA Author Host/IP: ppp.209.91.198.198.netdial.caribe.net / 209.91.198.198 Subject: ALGUIEN ESTA MIRANDO LO QUE ESCRIBES ...
SOMEBODY IS LOOKING WHAT YOU ARE WRITING ...
This was sent to me by a friend.
You better watch what you write in Yahoo's free e-mail service
because Yahoo is. To protect users from malicious code, Yahoo
uses an automated filter to swap out a handful of words such
as "mocha" and "eval" that pertain to Web code known as
JavaScript.
The reason is that e-mail sent in a form known as "Web
enhanced" can contain JavaScript instructions able to run
programs on the recipient's PC. JavaScript is a Web language
that can issue commands such as telling the browser to open up
other windows or to prompt a service to change a password, for
example.
"Mocha" is one of those special commands that can be run from
Web-enhanced e-mail. Typing "mocha:" into the location bar of
the Netscape browser will open a screen with a display area and
a text box underneath, in which commands can be entered. A
malicious hacker could, for example, use the command line to
run a program that changes a person's password without that
person's knowledge.
On the heels of plans for new powers to patrol people's Web
use, the U.S. government is again turning to technology to
monitor suspicious activity in the name of fighting terrorism.
The government has unveiled more details of its Terrorist
Information and Prevention System (TIPS), a plan to recruit
volunteers across the country who will keep tabs on dubious or
suspicious behavior.
"The program will involve the millions of American workers who,
in the daily course of their work, are in a unique position to
see potentially unusual or suspicious activity in public
places," according to the TIPS Web site. But the American Civil
Liberties Union, one of several critics of the plan, fears the
proposal will encourage racial profiling and vigilantism,
possibly leading to searches of private homes without a
warrant.
