Subject: Re: global warning: worms and viruses
From: Tim O'Connor (oconnort@nyu.edu)
Date: Tue Jul 31 2001 - 09:56:51 GMT
On Tue, Jul 31, 2001 at 09:41:13AM +0100, Bernd Wahlbrinck wrote:
> thanks a lot, Tim
Anytime, Bernie!
> I know that - with "criminals" I was referring to those people who
> create and deliberately distribute viruses or worms
Oh -- on THAT, I agree with you wholeheartedly. The people who create
these things deserve the worst of punishments. They cause harm, they
cause expense (of people like me, who have to do clean-up, or more),
they cause loss of privacy (because their worms expose private
documents -- which is why I encrypt files that are stored on my
computer such that if the real estate devoted to storing a particular
file is transmitted, it is transmitted as junk because the worm
doesn't know that the file needs to be decrypted and (it's strong
encryption) doesn't know how to decrypt it).
The only GOOD thing about it all is that it teaches people, albeit
painfully, to keep good antivirus software and current virus
definitions. Though it appears from experience that this is a lesson
people forget and need to relearn from repeated bad experience. So,
so is being truly BAD here? One would think that the person bitten
once by a virus would be forever after untrusting; yet, here I am,
autodeleting mail from certain people because they have proven that
their mail cannot be trusted! Argh!
> PS the Sircam virus (criminally) deletes the harddrive on Oct 16
Yes, I hope people will have sense enough to get antivirus software
before then, install it, and follow its advice before October 16.
Experience sadly shows that this will not happen, however....
--tim
-
* Unsubscribing? Mail majordomo@roughdraft.org with the message
* UNSUBSCRIBE BANANAFISH
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Mon Sep 10 2001 - 15:29:40 GMT