Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!jwt!john
From: john@jwt.UUCP (John Temples)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: Is Prodigy safe to use?
Message-ID: <1990Dec16.031022.22166@jwt.UUCP>
Date: 16 Dec 90 03:10:22 GMT
References: <80330004@hpl-opus.hpl.hp.com>
Organization: Private System -- Orlando, FL
Lines: 19

In article <80330004@hpl-opus.hpl.hp.com> knotts@hpl-opus.hpl.hp.com (Tom Knotts) writes:
>One person said something to me that is really disturbing about Prodigy.
>He said that using Prodigy is really dangerous because it has the
>capability to change any file on your hard disk without telling you. He
>points out that a disgruntled employee could program Prodigy to infect
>all Prodigy users' machines.

What's so special about Prodigy's software that people are singling
it out as "dangerous?"  A disgruntled employee at Microsoft could
program Windows so that it trashed your FAT if it detected a certain
brand of disk partitioning software.  A disgruntled employee at
WordPerfect Corp. could program WP 6.0 to reformat one hard disk in
ten thousand.  A disgruntled employee at...well, you get the idea.
If you run binaries written by other people, you are taking a risk.
If you want to be paranoid, you can come up with all sorts of
horrifying scenarios.  Keep good backups, and don't lose any sleep
over it.
-- 
John W. Temples -- john@jwt.UUCP (uunet!jwt!john)