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Foot-and-Mouth believed to be the first virus

unable to spread through Microsoft Outlook

Last modified: 28 March 2001

Scientists at the Center for Disease Control and Symantec's
AntiVirus Research Center today confirmed that foot-and-mouth
disease cannot be spread by Microsoft's Outlook email
application, believed to be the first time the program has
ever failed to propagate a major virus.
 
"Frankly, we've never heard of a virus that couldn't spread
through Microsoft Outlook, so our findings were, to say the
least, unexpected," said Clive Sarnow, director of the CDC's
infectious disease unit....
 
Executives at Microsoft, meanwhile, were equally sceptical,
insisting that Outlook's patented Virus Transfer Protocol
(VTP) has proven virtually pervious to any virus. The company,
however, will issue a free VTP patch if it turns out the
application is not vulnerable to foot-and-mouth.
 
 

Many thanks to Andreas, (Oracle developer) for sending this news.