Ron,

 Protected mode means NOTHING to a skilled programmer. ALL protected mode
¨means is that each applications MEMORY is protected from any other
¨application running on the system, NOT that you cannot access an
¨executable, juggle ring 0 - 3 descriptors etc. I am a programmer and find
¨it amazing that the OS/2 community now, reacts exactly as did the Mac
¨community and the Mini/Mainframe community when the first virus on each
¨platform hit. "Can't happen!".  My a$# it can't... If there's
one thing ¨that never changes in this endeavor it is the tenatious manner
in which ¨those who would do damage simply to do so, continue to find new
ways to ¨sneak under whatever protection methods are devised. There is no
such thing ¨as an operating system that cannot be hit and damaged by virus
attack. ¨Remember, ALL programs, are potential virusi to the operating
system. ¨Anything that performs disk I/O, port level I/O etc. has the
potential to ¨bring ANY system to it knees. That potential, to the virus
programmer, is ¨the holy grail.
 Frankly, instead of arguing "it can't happen..." we'd all be
better off ¨devising better detection methods in preparation for the day
when it DOES ¨happen, that day, is far to close already..
  Robert

--- Simplex/2 BBS (v1.07.00Beta [OS/2])