The hidden dangers of documents

Dot.life - how technology changes us By Mark Ward BBC News Online technology correspondent

Your Microsoft Word document can give readers more information about you than you might think. Even Alastair Campbell has fallen foul of the snippets of invisible data few of us realise our documents contain.

You could be leaking sensitive information

Usually with Microsoft Word, what you see is what you get.

If you make a change to a document, then that is what you see when it gets printed out.

But in fact, in many cases it is what you cannot see at first glance that proves more interesting.

Hidden and dangerous

Analysis of hidden information in the so-called Iraq "dodgy dossier" showed, among other things, the names of the four civil servants who worked on it.

Downing Street press office head Alastair Campbell had to explain who these people were to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee investigating the genesis of the plagiarised document.

Alastair Campbell had to explain hidden names

"The time when most information tends to leak is when you are using a document that has a number of revisions or a number of people working on it," says Nick Spenceley, founder director of computer forensics firm Inforenz.

The UK government has now largely abandoned Microsoft Word for documents that become public and has turned to documents created using Adobe Acrobat which uses the Portable Data Format (PDF).

"I'm not sure many people check Word documents before they go out or are published," says Mr Spenceley.

He says he knows of a case in which someone found previous versions of an employment contract buried in the Word copy he was sent. Reading the hidden extras gave the person applying for the job a big advantage during negotiations.

Sometimes the mistakes are even more public.

During the hunt for the Washington sniper the police allowed the Washington Post to publish a letter sent to the police that included names and telephone numbers.

HIDDEN TEXT Text from other documents open at the same time Previously deleted text E-mail headers and server information Printer names Data about the machine where the document was written Where the document was saved Word version number and document format Names and usernames of document authors

The newspaper tried to hide these details using black boxes which were easily removed and the sensitive details exposed for all to see.

But it is not just governments, businesses and newspapers that can be embarrassed in this way.

You could be too.

There is a function in many versions of Microsoft Office programs, which includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint, that means that fragments of data (which Microsoft refers to as metadata) from other files you deleted or were working on at the same time could be hidden in any document you save.

This could be embarrassing for any home workers whose colleagues find out that they have been applying for jobs while working at home or being less than complimentary about their co-workers.

Look and learn

With the right tools this hidden data can easily be extracted.

Unix and Linux users can turn to tools such as Antiword and Catdoc to turn the document, including its formatting information, into a simple text file.

Computer researcher Simon Byers has conducted a survey of Word documents available on the net and found that many of them contain sensitive information.

Sensitive data was exposed during the hunt for the Washington sniper

He gathered about 100,000 Word documents from sites on the web and every single one of them had hidden information.

In a research paper about the work Mr Byers wrote that about half the documents gathered had up to 50 hidden words, a third up to 500 words hidden and 10% had more than 500 words concealed within them.

The hidden text revealed the names of document authors, their relationship to each other and earlier versions of documents.

Occasionally it revealed very personal information such as social security numbers that are beloved of criminals who specialise in identity theft.

Also available was useful information about the internal network the document travelled through, which could be useful to anyone looking for a route into a network.

Mr Byers wrote that the problem of leaky Word documents is pervasive and wrote that anyone worried about losing personal information might want to consider using a different word processing program.

Alternatively he recommends using utility programs that scrub information from Word documents or following Microsoft's advice about how to make documents safer.

"Microsoft is aware of the functionality of metadata being stored within Word 97 documents and would advise users to follow the instructions laid out in [the Microsoft Knowledge Base - see Related Internet Links]," says a spokesperson. "However, Microsoft do not wish to comment on how customers use the functionality within our software."

Source: BBC News

Taking Action for the Course of Purity

"God has given me a message about sexual purity that He has promised to bless and that He's asked me to steward."

Staff Reports/CR (May 2nd, 2007)

With society constantly overwhelming men and boys at younger and younger ages with a flood of sexual images and messages, it's very difficult for them to stay the course towards purity. But one man, Fred Stoecker, feels he's been called to be a "steward" and beacon for purity in men. And that's precisely what he's doing. He wants to help turn the tide on temptation and equip men for the battle they face.

"God has given me a message about sexual purity that He has promised to bless and that He's asked me to steward," Stoeker says. "That's a big responsibility, and as I kneel to shoulder that load...."

With a mission that is more urgent today than ever, Stoeker is addressing the needs of a generation that is struggling to live with purity, or even to see that as possible. "The cost of sexual sin is enormous, but young people don't always recognize the danger," he says. "What seems like freedom soon becomes a prison of destructive desires and behaviors."

With his words on the truth behind dangerous sexual behaviors, Stoeker has released a new book entitled Tactics, which teaches a defensive stance towards temptation, and how to take purity beyond sex. His next release, scheduled for this month, is a CD to reinforce the defensive attitude by using football metaphors. The CD titled Win This War features the struggle for purity. Two of its songs will be released to the radio this month.

Source: Christian Newswire

Betrayal and Forgiveness: the Extraordinary Story of Kathi Winter

"HIV could have ruined my love of God or turned me into a bitter, angry person. I thank God that it did not."

Dan Wooding (May 2nd, 2007)

Kathi Winter is an American business woman who has experienced both betrayal and forgiveness and now she is dedicating her life to helping others who, like herself, are HIV-positive.

She has traveled all over Africa and also to China on her unique mission to bring the message of Christ's forgiveness especially to children and women who feel betrayed by those who gave them the deadly virus.

And she should know because she was given HIV by a man whom she'd trusted.

Days after returning from another trip this time to Congo and Uganda, Kathi, who has been a successful business woman for 32 years and is a committed Believer in Jesus Christ, agreed to share her dramatic story.

She began by saying, "I was born in Northern California to a white, upper middle-class family with strict religious beliefs and was taught reverence for God and to obey and never question a priest—or any man, for that matter," said Kathi. "Our family life revolved around my father who spent most of his time at work training super-star athletes. My mother was a Sorbonne-educated alcoholic, a condition my father chose to ignore.

"Taking my cue from him, I began what became a course of denial that led to my looking at life through rose-colored glasses. The tragedy is how that caused me eventually to blindly make certain decisions that will affect me the rest of my life."

Kathi says that she always had a deep compassion for homeless people and some years ago, at Christmas; she went to a Homeless Shelter to bring dinner to needy families.

"At first sight, I fell in love with a young man who was managing the Shelter when he testified that God had delivered him from ten years of drug addiction in one day," she said. "He loved Jesus and had the light of God all over him. Shortly after our working together, he fell in love with me, too, and for seven months I was ecstatic. Even though he had been an I.V. drug user, Fred wouldn't get tested for HIV. 'I'm not sick and don't need to,' he told me. This should have been a red flag, but being prone to denial, it was all I needed to hear."

"But seven months later, when he moved temporarily to the East coast, I decided I should get tested. I did and was told I was negative. What a relief! In my mind, that meant that neither he nor I was infected with the dreaded disease. We kept in touch and two years later, he returned to Southern California and we resumed our relationship and our work with the homeless.

"For Easter of 1995, together we planned and then hosted a huge feeding program for the homeless that was attended by 5,000 people. We both awoke that morning with flu-like symptoms. By the end of the day, we dragged home and went to bed. I got up 24 hours later feeling tired, but relatively o.k. Fred couldn't get out of bed but refused to let me call a doctor. Three weeks later, I drove him to Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, California, to be tested. The doctor asked me to wait outside while he examined Fred, and when he called me in for the verdict, he told me that Fred had AIDS and he was likely to die in three days.

"He also told me that I needed to be tested, and when I explained that I had already done that, he said, 'Just because you had one test doesn't mean that you don't need another.' Two weeks later, I was given the diagnosis that I was HIV positive. The fear that overcame me was inexplicable. Not for myself, but because the man of my life was going to die, the very man who, after my two failed marriages, had taken my heart to a new level of trust. I forgot about my own health and hoped the prognosis for him was wrong. It turned out that it was and for the next three years I took care of Fred: that is how much I loved him."

Kathi said that probably the worst day of her life was when Fred revealed to her that he had been told in 1989 that he was HIV positive, but that he didn't accept it, and never believed he would give it to anyone.

"On hearing this, I was so angry I wanted to kill him," she said. "True, he was the man who helped me accept the Lord and brought me into my wonderful relationship with Jesus. But now he turned out to be a man who didn't protect or care for me more than he cared for his own desire to be with me. I felt totally abandoned by family and friends. But more than that, I felt that God had betrayed me. I asked myself, 'Where is God in all this?' Why hadn't He protected me? Where was God when I was making poor judgments? Well, now I know He was with me all along, letting me have my free will and now letting me receive the consequences. God loves us that much that He gives us free will to do what we want. But we do reap what we sow.

"With God's help, I found the proper spirit to listen to Fred's apologies and take in his repentance, forgive him, and actually maintain a friendship with him. (It took me much longer to forgive myself). HIV could have ruined my love of God or turned me into a bitter, angry person. I thank God that it did not. But there is no question that the whole experience has kept me from trusting men again and it's been thirteen years. I pray that I can one day trust them as I now trust God."

HIV Is a Disease of Brokenness

Kathi said that HIV is a disease of brokenness—of the heart, the spirit, the mind, and the body.

"Christianity demands that we help heal the entire person, not just the physical part," she said. "For the three years after my diagnosis and of caring for Fred, I sought help and, looked for a way to get over the pain in my heart. The only place I could find counseling was in a gay and lesbian center that had state funding to provide it without charge. My church pastor told me he was sorry to hear my bad news, but never again did he address the issue, and in his own way he asked me to stay quiet about it, not wanting to 'upset the congregation."

"Churches have been so quiet for the past 25 years about this disease, out of ignorance. It is not curable, but it is preventable. It is heartening that more and more public and private groups are taking the lead in sponsoring educational HIV/AIDS programs. And increasingly, some churches are joining them. But more are needed. This devastating disease will continue to spread and there is a major role for more churches to play. They must wake up and talk openly about sexually transmitted disease."

"The painful rejection that I felt from the Church could have kept me from God for the rest of my life, but the Holy Spirit pulled me in deeper to depend more and more on His guidance to repair my broken spirit and mind. It is the role of our Christian Church to love and accept everyone, as Christ did. I know God loves me and accepts me. He is my best friend. His grace and mercy are what have pulled me through. And while my teaching is directed toward preventing women from making the mistakes that I did, I also pray that reading my story will lead those who are infected to recognize that their faith can see them through."

To read more of this inspiring story, follow the link below.

Source: ASSIST Ministries