|
 |
|
 |
| Tuesday, January 06, 2009
|
| Register Login |
 |
|
|
|
|
Users currently online
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
Membership: |
 |
Latest:
lquillen |
 |
New Today:
0 |
 |
New Yesterday:
0 |
 |
Overall:
48 |
 |
People Online: |
 |
Visitors:
12 |
 |
Members:
0 |
 |
Total:
12 |
Online Now:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Welcome to the Viruswarning forums. All your original content has been ported to the new forums as well as new content and additional opportunities to interact with the authors of Viruswarn.com. You can always access old content at www.leedrake.com/forum . You may find some formatting was lost in the conversion and the older versions of the posts to be more readable....
But at least it's all here.
Enjoy!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Viruswarn Forums
|
|
|
|
|
| You are not authorized to post a reply.
|
|
| Author |
Messages |
|
Lee Drake
Posts:238
 |
| 11/13/2003 7:55 AM |
|
| What Is It?
Plaxo is a service that offers to keep your Outlook or Outlook Express contacts up to date. It does its work by installing a bit of spyware on your computer Though the Plaxo service claims that your privacy is protected, we are uneasy about any software that installs itself onto your computer and communicates with others, either over a peer to peer network or through a third party server. Both pose security and other risks.
What Should I Do?
Plaxo was developed by the same people who brought us Napster, which further adds to my personal unease. I recommend that you ignore any message you receive from a colleague that invites you to subscribe, or even to update your contact information for their benefit.
Let's face it; the service is offered free of charge. Why would a company spend the money they are spending creating and promoting this service without some expectation that they will gain something from it? Furthermore,,using Plaxo may violate your company's security and privacy policies; it certainly violates ours!
Please be aware that, according to http://support.plaxo.com/bin/answer.py?answer=431&topic=51 on the Plaxo Web site, Plaxo needs only ports 80 (HTTP) and 443 (HPPS/SSL), both of which are normally, and of necessity, wide open.
Our bottom line is that we believe that Plaxo should be treated with the same caution that we have always recommend with regard to Kazaa, Gnutella, Napster, and other file sharing services.
References
We suggest the following of many articles about Plaxo.
"Macrhome Takes a Fresh Look at Plaxo," from PC Magazine, at http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,949832,00.asp . This is the second of two articles and does a bit of backtracking on his initial article.
"Plaxo Annoys Me" is the title of a discussion thread on Network World Fusion, at http://www.nwfusion.com/compendium/archive/003589.html.
PMBx is a company that offers secure mail service. Read their warning about Plaxo at https://www.pmbx.net/plaxo.php.
Read what Wired has to say about Plaxo at http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,56322,00.html.
See one of numerous articles in the San Jose (CA) Mercury News at http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/business/5910076.htm.
Finally, at https://www.business2.com/subscribers/articles/web/print/0,1650,45292,00.html, Business 2.0 comments about Plaxo's evasiveness about how they intend to make a profit.
David Gray
P6 Consulting
V: +1 (972) 751-0254
TZ: USA Central, GMT -6
E: mailto:dagray@p6c.com
W: http://www.p6c.com
VirusWarning Mailing List Info: http://www.leedrake.com/virus_notification.htm |
|
|
|
|
|
| You are not authorized to post a reply. |
|
|
|
ActiveForums 3.6
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|