On Wed, 13 Aug 2008 22:46:37 +0100, Brian Morrison wrote:

On Wed, 13 Aug 2008 08:35:18 -0500
Jules wrote:

On Tue, 12 Aug 2008 20:00:58 +0100, Tim Ward wrote:

"Brian Morrison" wrote in message
k...

What happens when a weird attachment arrives that you need just happens
to resemble a virus and is silently binned?

Yup, a real risk.

It seems acceptable to me though, providing such things aren't silently
binned but can be retrieved from the ISP on a case-by-case basis (in a
similar way I tend to scan my junk mail folder a couple of times a week
before clearing it out - every once in a while there's something
legitimate in there)

Well, you are of course free to do as you both please, and have
obviously considered whether the risk is acceptable to you.

Well, I would assume that any ISP-run scheme has a complete opt-out. It's
just that the OS vendors don't seem to be doing anything much to make
their products more secure, the end users seem to be, on the whole,
utterly clueless, and there are just so many new virus variations per day
that it's hard for them to keep up anyway.

I just think that putting the technology in at the ISPs might be the only
route left - and that it might take quite a bit of effort initially,
but if every ISP were doing it the problem would eventually go away
anyway as there's be no incentive to write viruses (or spam) in the
first place.

I decided I was happy to run virus scanners on the mail server and on
the Windows PCs to give more defence in depth, so that's fine with me.

Not running Windows helps me a lot with the defence side of course, but
what really annoys me is that someone out there feels the need to send
me this crap in the first place - hence screening it further upstream
would seem like a nice idea...

Everyone aware of their own risks, and happy.

Except that by and large, they aren't aware...

cheers

J.

Kevin wrote:

trouble is the Dweebs live amongst us ,I am working with 300+
programmers and professionals for a Major credit card company and last
week alone we have had 6 different viruses caused by them opening dodgy
emails or surfing weird sites during lunch breaks


Which is probably why my Bank when ape-sh*t yesterday and called me to
cancel my VISA card *even* due to the fact there had been no funny
transactions recorded on it. Not convienient for me as I'm travelling
soon :-(

--
Adrian C

Kevin wrote:

trouble is the Dweebs live amongst us ,I am working with 300+
programmers and professionals for a Major credit card company and last
week alone we have had 6 different viruses caused by them opening dodgy
emails or surfing weird sites during lunch breaks


Nice one. I have a very good friend who works for a very well known anti-
virus company. The support staff have a document to follow if a virus is
sent in that has not been identified. Would you believe it reads;

"First of all confirm the file is a virus."

How do you think they have been doing this? Why, by opening them and
running them on their windows desktops and looking to see if the AV
(which never caught it in the first place, hence why the customer has
submitted it) detects it.

You could not make this up if you tried.

--
powered by Linux - *******ized by Window$ -

The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Cork Soaker wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
I received a suspect mail and sent it off to the virus scan site

Had the same, it's due to your computer being infected by a virus
BEFORE the email.

Assuming your replies, this is a troll, but,

Boot a live CD and scan.

Ask for more help on this, or better yet, Google and learn a ****-load.

Oh dear.

This idiot isn't killfiled here.

Didn't you bother to see I was posting on a Mac, and it couldn't e
infected with a windws virus?



So what are you doing here?

On Oct 8, 10:40*am, Cork Soaker wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Didn't you bother to see I was posting on a Mac, and it couldn't e
infected with a windws virus?

So what are you doing here?

A lot more than you.

Cork Soaker wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Cork Soaker wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
I received a suspect mail and sent it off to the virus scan site

Had the same, it's due to your computer being infected by a virus
BEFORE the email.

Assuming your replies, this is a troll, but,

Boot a live CD and scan.

Ask for more help on this, or better yet, Google and learn a ****-load.

Oh dear.

This idiot isn't killfiled here.

Didn't you bother to see I was posting on a Mac, and it couldn't e
infected with a windws virus?



So what are you doing here?

Here being one of cam.misc. uk.d-i-y and uk.telecoms.broadband, nothing
in the posting implies either a PC, or a Linux setup.

And 'live CD' implies Linux, and I have yet to actually see a Mac
infected by a virus. I am sure its possible, but they are as rare as
hen's teeth. Viruses are largely a windows PC phenomenon.

And your advice was patntly wrong.

So?

The Natural Philosopher writes:


And 'live CD' implies Linux, and I have yet to actually see a Mac
infected by a virus. I am sure its possible, but they are as rare as
hen's teeth. Viruses are largely a windows PC phenomenon.

I've seen them, but over 10 years ago and back in days of floppy-borne
beasties. One of the joys of working for a university computer
service.


Paul
--
Paul Leyland | Hanging on in quiet desperation is
Dept. of Genetics, Cambridge University | the English way.
Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EH, UK | The time is gone, the song is over.
Tel: +44-1223-333963 Fax: +44-1223-333992 | Thought I'd something more to say.

In message , at 13:32:56 on Wed,
8 Oct 2008, Paul Leyland remarked:
And 'live CD' implies Linux, and I have yet to actually see a Mac
infected by a virus. I am sure its possible, but they are as rare as
hen's teeth. Viruses are largely a windows PC phenomenon.

I've seen them, but over 10 years ago and back in days of floppy-borne
beasties. One of the joys of working for a university computer
service.

Viruses today are mainly "drive by" attacks on browsers, having
attracted the user to an infected website. The major anti-virus vendors
no doubt have statistics for which platforms are most vulnerable.
--
Roland Perry

Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 13:32:56 on Wed,
8 Oct 2008, Paul Leyland remarked:
And 'live CD' implies Linux, and I have yet to actually see a Mac
infected by a virus. I am sure its possible, but they are as rare as
hen's teeth. Viruses are largely a windows PC phenomenon.

I've seen them, but over 10 years ago and back in days of floppy-borne
beasties. One of the joys of working for a university computer
service.

Viruses today are mainly "drive by" attacks on browsers, having
attracted the user to an infected website. The major anti-virus vendors
no doubt have statistics for which platforms are most vulnerable.


Are you sure about that?

I thought they were mainly in email attachments..

Anyway I don't use IE at all, so that's mainly that.

"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...

I thought they were mainly in email attachments..

Haven't seen one of those for years. Are there really still people who use
ISPs who don't throw them away on the server?

--
Tim Ward - posting as an individual unless otherwise clear
Brett Ward Limited - www.brettward.co.uk
Cambridge Accommodation Notice Board - www.brettward.co.uk/canb
Cambridge City Councillor