NewsMax.com
Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2001

According to a report by Associated Press:

This latest Internet snooping does not affect computer users of America Online's e-mail program, Eudora or Web-based e-mail, such as Hotmail or Yahoo! Mail.

It does its dirty work through the JavaScript programming language employed in Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express and Netscape 6 mail.

If an e-mail recipient disables the JavaScript programming language in those three programs, the e-mail wiretap will not affect that recipient's computer.

However, should that user forward a message infected with the e-tap it will click back into operation unless the next recipient also disables JavaScript.

Microsoft has made available for Outlook a downloadable software patch – intended for another security issue – that resolves the e-tap problem.

Microsoft's newest downloadable update to Outlook Express, version 5.5, is not affected, because JavaScript is already off by default.

Netscape is working on a patch to eliminate the problem on its e-mail program.

Here's how the e-tap works:

Someone sends you what appears to be a perfectly legitimate e-mail message. It also carries some codes invisible to you.

As you forward that inbound e-mail message to other recipients, possibly with revealing personal comments about the first sender, the invisible codes copy your message plus comments and surreptitiously transmit that back to the original sender to read at leisure.

The threats to intra- and inter-business e-mail transactions, as well as to personal e-mail correspondence, are staggering.

An e-tap could be used by a busybody to read off-color remarks, by a spamming company to collect e-mail addresses, or by a boss curious about what employees say about him.

"You really would never know that this is occurring unless you could view the source code and know what it meant," said Stephen Keating, executive director of the Privacy Foundation.

There is some dispute within Internet-security circles over whether letting the world know that the e-tap exists is such a good idea. Proponents of getting the word out contend the value of putting people on guard outweighs the danger of possibly encouraging use of the e-tap technology.

Related Products:
What`s the best investment in uncertain times? Click here to find out.