Re: Virii on vger.kernel.org lists

William Scott Lockwood III
2001-07-31T19:16:02Z

| > No. If you look carefully, you would be surprised at how many
| > are using OutlookSExpress to handle their email.
| > Of course in case of Viruses using OE security bugs, we all are
| > seeing the distilled evil.

Of course, non of the common "holes" in OE are left unfixed. People
should be responsible to update their mail clients. People using
Windows (like me) should also be responsible to maintain current virus
software themselves, rather than leaving that job to the mail server,
which seems like an unfair burden on the mail server to me. I
personally use McAfee, as it will auto update itself periodically if you
tell it to. Using OE as patched, and McAfee, Virii like the one that
just hit are not a problem - they are caught and killed before they can
execute... I got hit once (and if you search through the archives,
you'll find a message from me about it - one that I caught holy hell
from many of you for, but anyway) and learned from that incident to
secure my system. It has not happened since, and won't if I am careful.

The user has the responsibility to be careful, I think. Not the list
server.

| Is there any way we can set up an automatic virus scan of all
| attachments at vger, and have it deal with any virii at source?

Yes.

| Come to that, is there a decent Linux-based virus scanner around?

Yes.

| > It is analogous on how I am seeing the UNRELIABILITY of people's
| > email systems. I see only failure cases, never succesfull
| > deliveries!
| Same here...

No, you both miss the point. Some PEOPLE are ignorant or unreliable,
the email system performs exactly as instructed... No matter if it runs
on Linux, or *BSD, or Mickey$oft.

Regards,
Scott