Viruses

[Mark R. Jones]

Hi.

Anti-virus software is available to run on the Message Transfer Agent.

This is what has been done in some commercial companies.

The A-V sw processes each piece of e-mail entering the MTA  -- just
like A-V sw does on your PC / workstation.

There is a cost in terms of message processing delay times and license
costs and systems administration.

Hope this helps . . .


Mark R. Jones
Chief Information Officer:       SEA-IS
Executive Vice President:        SEA
P.O. Box 1457;
  Lynnwood, WA 98046
Direct Line:                         425-413-6000
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Message Line:                     504-304-2460
e-Mail:                                mark.r.jones at seabase.com

-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]On Behalf Of Artur F.
Silva
Sent: Friday, December 07, 2001 2:30 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Viruses


At 20:15 06-12-2001, Winston Kinch wrote:


  Is there no way for the listserv manager/software to automatically check
messages for viruses and filter out buggy ones?

I am no longer a specialist, but once I was (as an IBM SE...) and one gets a
feeling for these things...

I think it is not easy for the listserve software to do that; what can be
done at the
listserv SW level is to supress the sending of ALL attachments. On the other
level the list can change to being moderated, and someone would have
to check every message - but that has other problems.

Internet service providers, on the other level, can do that ckeck if they
are forced
to - but that has also other problems as it slows the response time.

So the best solution is: everyone must have an anti-virus an keep it
updated.

"Whatever happens is the only thing that could have" shall NOT be applied
here ;-)

At 20:20 06-12-2001, Esther . wrote:


  I have noticed that the current virus seems to come from a legitimate
email address with a _ at the beginning (an underscore) so that if you were
to try to reply to it, you can't without removing the underscore from the
beginning of the email.

  Perhaps the moderator or the listserv could look for those and eliminate
them automatically?

  Maybe I'm asking too much but it's worth noting for all of us who look at
our email - delete without opening ANY of it when the "from" address has the
underscore at the beginning.

I don't think there is a clear relation between the initial underscore and
the fact of
having the computer infected and hence sending (unwillingly) messages with
virus.

I think that people that use the underscore (or some blank caracters in
the beginning) are only trying to protect themselves from spam and  other
automatic replies.

Regards

Artur



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