Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!tekchips!tekgvs!sail!toma
From: toma@sail.LABS.TEK.COM (Tom Almy)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: Is Prodigy safe to use?
Message-ID: <8619@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM>
Date: 17 Dec 90 19:47:36 GMT
References: <80330004@hpl-opus.hpl.hp.com> <1990Dec16.031022.22166@jwt.UUCP>
Sender: news@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM
Reply-To: toma@sail.LABS.TEK.COM (Tom Almy)
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton,  OR.
Lines: 33

In article <1990Dec16.031022.22166@jwt.UUCP> john@jwt.UUCP (John Temples) writes:
>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.

>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. [...]

Prodigy is not the first service to do this. Many years ago I got a 
Compuserve account on my TRS-80. The package came with a presumably
dumb terminal emulator (no upload/download, among other things). But
it turned out to have a secret download capability, and more! In order to
get a better emulator I went to the programming area and ran a program.
 That program downloaded the new package and even started it running!
 Compuserve software has always had the capability of reading and writing
 ones disks under Compuserve's control.

 Maybe the problem with Prodigy is that have shown they cannot be trusted
 for other reasons.

Tom Almy
toma@sail.labs.tek.com <<< Note new address
Standard Disclaimers Apply

--
Tom Almy
toma@sail.labs.tek.com <<< Note new address
Standard Disclaimers Apply