OT Re: [Sca-cooks] Recent Test

[AEllin Olafs dotter]

Well, the way it works is that my Norton checks incoming messages, and 
files from websites, and catches it there. Never gets into my computer. 
But I also run a scan automatically at least every week, after running a 
download from Norton of the latest data, just in case. When there are 
viruses actively around, I increase the schedule. (I'm on  a lot of 
mailing lists, many people have my address...)  I presume that if one 
were infecting the scan software, a correction for that would be in the 
download. The key, though, is to not get it in the first place. Washing 
one's hands, as it were, rather than waiting and taking the antibiotics...

I also don't use either Outlook or IE as a reader. So, while I in theory 
could get a virus, so far as I can tell I'm like the Mac users in that I 
couldn't send it. No one seems to have bothered to write programs to 
infect every single mail reader out there... and there are quite a few. 
Diversity is good. I don't count on that, though...

So far as I can tell, webmail users are quite safe. I have a webmail 
address I use on a discussion group, since that's even more public than 
this (though with our open archives, anything we post can be read by 
anybody... which I think we often forget.) Someone on that board was 
infected a year or so ago, and the webmail itself killed the viruses - I 
always just got a note that the attachment was infected and had been 
removed. I have to actively try to download anything from it, had a 
terrible time a while ago getting a picture someone sent me, so the odds 
of it happening without my knowing seem slim.

A lot, though, seem to be not so much viruses getting through antivirus 
programs, as people still not running them, or quite understanding the 
whole issue. I'm having a lot of trouble right now from another list I'm 
on...  A virus came through. My antivirus caught it.  Then someone 
posted "Gee, what was that? I couldn't get it to open on my computer, I 
bet it was good, would someone who was able to open it please send it to 
me?" AARGHHH!   Then we had a flurry of people brightly explaining that 
they knew they couldn't have it, as they "only open attachments from 
people they know!"  And I'm getting two or three of that virus (there 
are several around right now, just to make things more interesting) 
every day. So clearly, the message still hasn't gotten out to everyone...

AEllin

Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius wrote:

>
> Well, work-based LANs are a slightly different animal, I guess, but I 
> was basically wondering if, as it seems some viruses get through the 
> scans, people are checking their infected drives with infected 
> antivirus software, and if people who use things like Webmail 
> (Hotmail, etc., or even a Webmail page for your ISP, like mine at 
> Verizon, for when I'm away from my home computer), running machines 
> for which the address book file is on a web server someplace, had 
> similar problems...
>
> Adamantius
>