Ask Dave Taylor: Tech and Business

Thursday

Is it dangerous to subscribe to RSS feeds?

Dave, I have read alot about RSS and XML feeds, and I daily use a RSS aggregator to subscribe to and read some feeds of interest to me.

My question is: Is there a security risk in using RSS feeds? I don't believe that my anti-virus programs scan my RSS, and I am not familiar enough with how the XML feeds work to know if it could pose any kind of security risk, i.e., viruses, spyware, hostile computer takeovers, etc.?


I forwarded your question to a couple of the smartest people I know, guys that are mired in the innards of RSS, Greg Reinacker (Chief Technology Officer at RSS aggregator Newsgator.com) and Bill French (Co-founder of enterprise blogging tool developers MyST Technology Partners).

Greg answered first...