-=PCTechTalk=- (Fwd) control of content for you to "reviewuate"

From: "Grant Karpik" <gkarpik@xxxxxxxxx>
To: pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thu, 18 Jul 2002 12:32:17 -0700
For those who use Yahoo mail:


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Date sent:              Thu, 18 Jul 2002 10:17:12 -0400
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From:                   kcuny <kcuny@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject:                control of content for you to "reviewuate"
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Technology - Reuters Internet Report

Yahoo Admits Changing E-Mail Text to Block Hackers
Wed Jul 17, 8:58 PM ET
By Andrea Orr

PALO ALTO, Calif. (Reuters) - If you ever used Yahoo! mail to ask a
potential employer to "evaluate" your resume, they might have concluded
your grasp of the English language was insufficient for the job.



Yahoo! Inc. confirmed on Wednesday that its e-mail software has
automatically changed certain words -- including evaluate -- in a bid 
to
prevent hackers from spreading viruses.

Although the company declined to list the words its software had been
changing, a report on the technology news Web site, News.com, reported
that the program changes "mocha" to "espresso," and the phrase "eval" 
to
"review."

"Evaluate," then, becomes, "reviewuate," and that job application
doesn't look so polished anymore.

A spokeswoman for Yahoo said the word-changing program was just one of
several practices the company takes to ensure the security of its
e-mail.

The problem with words like mocha, she said, is that along with
describing a flavor and a color, it is a special command in the
JavaScript computer language, which hackers may intercept to launch
malicious programs.

Aside from a general list of e-mail guidelines, which states that Yahoo
will take measures to insure tight security, the company had not
previously disclosed the word-changing practice to e-mail users.

While some security experts, including Alex Shipp of the e-mail
filtering company MessageLabs, said Yahoo's practice was a reasonable
tactic to keep its e-mail secure, others noted that they knew of no
other e-mail services that were changing the text in messages.

"It looks to me like it's just buggy software," said Richard Smith, who
runs the Web security site ComputerBytesMan.com. Smith said companies
typically intercept hackers by blocking certain underlying computer
code, but not the actual text of the messages.

A spokeswoman for Microsoft Corp. said its free e-mail service, 
HotMail,
blocks certain pieces of software code that may be used by hackers,
without interfering with any of the actual words contained in the e-
mail
messages.

Searches of such non-English words like "reviewuate" and "medireview" --

changed from "medieval -- produce thousands of results on the Internet
search engine Google ( news - external web site), offering some
indication of how often Yahoo's mail system has replaced words.

However, a test message Wednesday on Yahoo mail transmitted the words
"mocha" and "evaluate" with no changes. Yahoo was not immediately
available to say whether or when it had changed its practices.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
...a cat is a diagram and a pattern of subtle air...

Grant Karpik
gkarpik@xxxxxxxxx


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-=PCTechTalk=- (Fwd) control of content for you to "reviewuate"

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