RE: Hidden bombs in Word

[m.oritz_b.erger@xxxxxxxxxxx (Moritz Berger)]

> -----Original Message-----
> [mailto:framers@omsys.com] On Behalf Of DW Emory
> Sent: Monday, August 18, 2003 3:59 PM
> To: Free Framers; Framers List; FrameSGML List

> Word docs can really embarrass you, as the news story at the 
> URL below 
> demonstrates. Does anyone know whether this Word "Metadata" 
> survives being 
> imported into FrameMaker?

No, it doesn't (easily verified by opening the resulting FM document with a
hex-editor).

The link you provided also referred to a MS KB article on how to remove
sensitive information with Office 97 apps. Similar articles exist for more
recent version of MSO.

Office 03 which has been RTMed today offers a comprehensive security model
(including expiry dates and all kind of access limitations to parts of
documents) that surpasses every other mainstream app I know. If you really
need that much security you ought to check it out.

In the meantime, most companies could enforce a standard information removal
policy for outgoing documents by writing a simple macro (which is fairly
easy in VB).

If consider that it is highly desirable to keep versioning and revision
capabilities for your internal workflow, the inclusion of metadata in itself
should be considered a (highly useful) feature, not a bug.

It is true, however, that many individuals as well as not-so-small companies
fail to remove those metadata when passing around documents. In this
respect, I do not think that Microsoft has done enough to educate people
about the correct use of its products. The resulting damage as a consequence
of unintended information transport can be arbitrarily big.

Summary: The product (Office) itself is fine, but Microsoft and the user
community share the blame for incorrect handling.

Thanks,
Moritz



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