email viruses
email viruses
- Subject: email viruses
- From: John Gnaegy <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2001 18:46:52 -0700
Here's a note about viruses from Apple's list server administrator Chuq
Von Rospach. Definitely worth a read.
-------
It's probably time to explain what we've done on the mailing lists to
protect things, and what that will (and won't!) do.
On our lists, every incoming message is run through a filter. That
filter stripes everything out of the message except for the text --
that's why, if you try to post a picture or some other attachment, it
doesn't go through. That's also why pictures, enclosures, styled text,
or HTML-based text disappears on the mail list.
What this means is that nobody can send a virus to the list and infect
everyone.
That does NOT mean, however, that you're safe from viruses. The current
viruses going around the windows world bury themselves into a person's
address book and send itself out to addresses in it. Many mail clients
now keep track of who sends e-mail to you, so it can quickly
auto-complete the address if you try to mail them.
This turns out to be an issue with these viruses. If you post to the
list, both your address (as poster) AND the list address are likely to
be cached in mail clients -- you do NOT have to be manually put in the
address book. And if that person then gets infected, you're at risk of
being mailed to directly by the virus, circumventing our mailing list
protections. So just because we protect the list, don't assume you're
fully protected.
The bottom line: run virus protection on your system 100% of the time,
and make sure the virus definitions are always up to date. Period,
exclamation point. It is no longer safe to assume that because we
protect the list from viruses that you're protected.
If you never post to the list, you won't be added to anyone's address
books (but what's the fun of not posting?) -- but if you e-mail ANYONE,
anywhere, and you're at risk from anyone you send e-mail to, anywhere,
any time.
If you want to protect yourself from viruses, you can do one of two
things:
1) never send email to anyone, anywhere, at any time. Better yet, never
read any email, from anyone, anywhere.
2) install and use virus protection. Keep it enabled, and update it
frequently -- at least monthly.
Anything less than that, you put yourself at risk -- and everyone you
know. As someone who runs e-mail for a living, I have to say I've
*never* seen the volume of infected e-mail that I see on a daily basis
now. It's ugly and brutal out there, and the viruses are getting smarter
and more virulent and dangerous (the new viruses, in fact, have a
buillt-in update feature, so once you're infected, the author can send
out packages with new features and bug fixes and new protections from
the anti-virus systems; worse, others have figured out this distribution
method, so now ANYONE can effectively hijack the virus from the author
and do with it what they want -- using YOUR computer -- once it's
infected. So you can't even assume that if you're infected with a
harmless virus, that it'll stay harmless. It's one update away from
trashing your system.
If you run a Mac, you have less of an issue, but I still wouldn't run
without virus protection. And the three of you using unix-based mail
readers are on your own, but I sure wouldn't depend on nobody bothering
to write viruses for an Intel-based linux, either...
Sorry for the off-topic content, but I think it's important to point out
the state of the universe. That state is -- the viruses are winning. And
they're not harmless annoyances any more. So you need to protect
yourself, because if you don't, you put everyone in your address book,
including lots of people you don't KNOW are in your address book, at
risk, too. it's NOT just you and your machine any more.
Our policy on viruses is pretty simple: when we see a virus posting sent
to a list, that address is unsubscribed and warned, immediately. if that
address resubscribes and is still infected, or becomes infected a second
time and starts sending out viruses again, it's banned, permanently. The
way viruses are propogated these days, we can't allow people who won't
maintain their machines to put everyone else at risk. Two strikes, and
you're out. Which, if nothing else will do it, will hopefully convince
you to deal with this stuff.
chuq
---
John Gnaegy
email@hidden
colorsync list admin