The posting on possible corrupt or malformed GED files raises an important security issue. It is likely that some Genealogy programs may not be secure (at least on Linux, XP and MAC) as the applications (and especially the o/s) are insecure & potentially vulnerable. Many genealogists would be wise to take the security of their systems seriously. Just because there are few reported security issues for a particular application or operating system - does not imply that that system is actually secure. Some vendors are less diligent in reporting issues they discover and sneak in security fixes. Furthermore the hacker world tend to focus their attentions on the most popular applications and systems first; as these popular systems improve the hacking world will (and already has started) to migrates towards less popular systems. Unless you use a secure (least privilege) operating system (such as Vista) you might be better advised NOT TRUST OR DOWNLOAD GEDcom files. The attack surface for some popular applications (PAF, FTM, endless list...) is much larger than is reasonable and they are not developed (at present) with security in mind. As an aside an article independently looking at Vista security model applauding it and Microsofts approach the last 5 years towards security. Steve - - - - - - - Podcast: Microsoft security? Experts applaud it http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/25984 Podcast: Microsoft security? Experts applaud it Submitted by Micronet on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 6:53pm. It seems to be the trend for highly regarded security experts to applaud Microsoft's security efforts. In blogger Mitchell Ashley's Converging on Network podcast, author and security analyst Michael Rothman said he thought other huge software companies should watch Microsoft and take notes, particularly when it comes to Patch Tuesday. "Relative to Apple or Oracle or SAP or any of these other huge software companies. Microsoft is really a model citizen in terms of how structured their program is, how aggressive their program is. The amount of their investment in their security program is bigger than most of the security companies out there - that's just their investment. ... Microsoft is really a model that a lot of other software companies should be looking to emulate," he said. While he was careful to point out that nothing is perfect, he also applauded Microsoft Vista - saying it was light years better than XP when it comes to security.... --- --- --- --- http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2008/tc20080317_287032.htm Apple's Icarus Effect Pride goes before destruction, and with hackers targeting Macs and iPhones, Roger L. Kay says Apple's haughty spirit portends a fall by Roger L. Kay Just as those living in shiny houses of self-righteous glass often end up surrounded by shards of their former sanctimony, so Apple Inc. now finds itself the increasingly appealing target of software hackers. For years, Apple's marketing has consisted of accentuating the positive and ignoring everything else. As hackers pillaged Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows operating system, Apple (AAPL) stressed that its computer platform was relatively virus-free, most notably in that snarky ad campaign, "I'm a PC. I'm a Mac." There was Windows, groaning under the weight of its security apparatus, like some knight of yesteryear packed in heavy armor who, once he fell off his horse, couldn't get up again. And on the other side, there was Apple strutting about, smacking its gloves together and posing for the crowd. -----Original Message----- From: gen-comp-tips-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:gen-comp-tips-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Alfred Eller Sent: Friday, 21 March 2008 9:33 AM To: gen-comp-tips@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [GEN-COMP-TIPS] Looking for a way to repair gedcom files If it has massive amounts of unprintable characters in it then it is not a GEDCOM file. It may have the GED extension, but it sure doesn't sound like it is a GEDCOM file. A GEDCOM file is plain ASCII text, readable with wordPad or any text editor. Alfred D. Eller http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~adelr/index.htm ======================================= Alison Archer wrote: > > Does anyone know if there is a GED file clearup or repair utility. I have been given a very large (30 Mbytes) GED file and I would like to load this into a new PAF file and extract the relatively small information that interests me. Unfortunately the when I try to load it up it takes ages under Windows XP and then PAF crashes. It takes ages from reporting the initial errors until it actually crashes and the PC is very slow. > > When I try to load up on my work Vista laptop there are some security errors and warns about various security things - but it does not crash. I have opened the GED file using Microsoft Word 2007 and it looks there is a massive amount of unprintable characters. Does anyone know of a utlity that can get rid of the invalid things. (I am hoping that what I am interested in is still in the rest). > > Ali -------------------------------------- Having trouble with your subscription? 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