[texhax] Adobe Acrobat and Reader compromised on Windows platforms : EMET toolkit from Microsoft can reduce exposure.

[James Quirk]

On Thu, 16 Sep 2010, Philip Taylor (Webmaster, Ret'd) wrote:

> Adobe Reader and Acrobat are seriously compromised, and are currently
> being exploited to take control of Windows systems.  A toolkit
> available from Microsoft can be used to minimise the risks
> resulting from this until such time as Adobe can release security
> fixes that address this problem.  The bug exists in all versions
> of Adobe Acrobat & Adobe reader.
As someone who has been acknowledged by Adobe in previous security
advisories, for finding similar problems to the present one, 
I have to say that UK users of this group should be far more concerned
by the call for evidence put out by The Royal Society regarding
the computing in schools crisis, see:

http://royalsociety.org/education-policy/projects/

Of course, it's a vulnerability of a different sort, and falls into the
long-range category that is easy to ignore. Anyhow, I will be submitting
my evidence before the November 5th deadline, and it will be generated
using pdflatex, although not in the way most people use it. Therefore
if anyone would like to do their bit for the big society, and be a test 
reader, please drop me a line.

Now as I explained in my open letter to Stephen Fry, in the telegraph's
comment section on his new electronic book:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturevideo/8002642/Stephen-Frys-book-the-most-technologically-advanced-ever.html#disqus_thread

the purpose of my submission is not to draw attention to myself.
So please don't leap to conclusions with this posting, the
education stakes are too high for us to fall out over
misunderstandings of my intent.

James