Transcripts

"Tech Talk" -The Ever Evolving E-mail

LINDA O`BRYON: In tonight`s "Tech Talk" report, a look at the latest in e-mail and electronic documents. Here`s our technology maven, Scott Gurvey.

SCOTT GURVEY, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: I received some e-mail the other day which looked like it came from Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). It described a security problem with Windows and told me to run an attached program which would supposedly repair my system. That`s when the alarm bells went off. Microsoft does not send out updates this way. The lesson is you cannot be too careful. Who knows what that attachment would have done. I`ve also been receiving messages which look like they came from my bank or credit card company. These messages ask to confirm personal information like Social Security and account numbers and passwords. This is called "phishing" as in fishing for information. Your bank or credit card company would never solicit your information this way. Identity thieves using these techniques are victimizing millions of people each year. The best way to stop these e-mail scams is to be able to know for sure who sent each piece of e-mail. Microsoft has joined with America Online, EarthLink (NASDAQ:ELNK), Google and others to try to solve the authentication problem. Microsoft calls its technology "caller-id for e-mail".

RYAN HAMLIN, ANTI-SPAM TECHNOLOGY, MICROSOFT: The basic principle behind that is to make sure that the identity of where the mail originated from actually matches so that when a mail comes from a Hotmail user or an Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) user, you can feel comfortable that it did indeed came from an Amazon server or a Hotmail server.

GURVEY: Hopefully those efforts will result in an industry standard, the sooner the better. If you browse the net you are almost certain to have run across PDF files. These files are created with Adobe`s (NASDAQ:ADBE) Acrobat software which has the ability to reproduce documents often indistinguishable from the original. The U.S. government and many of the world`s biggest companies have standardized on this method of document exchange. You can too. The Acrobat software that makes these files comes in several versions with prices starting at $250. With it you convert most paper and electronic documents to PDF files, track changes, make annotations, add electronic signatures and much more. The newest version seamlessly integrates with programs like Internet Explorer and Microsoft Word, making the creation of PDF files while working in those products as simple as touching a button. Two hundred fifty dollars is not an inexpensive product but for even the smallest business, if exchanging documents is part of your work flow, this is a product well worth considering. Scott Gurvey, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, New York.