On Thu, 02 Aug 2001 13:10:25 -0400, L.D. Best wrote:
> Sam,
> Only wish it were true ...
> On Wed, 01 Aug 2001 22:44:03 -0500, Samuel W. Heywood wrote:
> <snip>
>> Looks like you spotted that one all right. I have been getting
>> Magistr virii of varying file sizes. They come from people I
>> don't know. They say these email virii are sent out to people
>> on one's mailing list and the sender is unaware that his system
>> is infected. If these virii are being sent out inadvertently
>> to people on the sender's mailing list, then they would be coming
>> from people I know.
> Have you ever received a single piece of UCE/UBE [incorrectly called
> spam]? If so, there is a great likelyhood that you could receive lots
> and LOTS of e-mail with whichever worm/virus is popular at the time.
> Have you ever noticed that many of the mailbox-stuffing programs have
> obvious mailing lists for addressees? I'm stuck on one named
> "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" ...
Yes, certainly I have noticed this. UCE/UBE is just the technical
term for spam. Spam is the popular slang term for UCE/UBE. I don't
see anything "incorrect" about using the popular slang term since
everyone on the list knows what we are talking about and nobody
finds it offensive.
Since the spammers are smart enough to know how to cloak their
headers and send their junk through insecure smtp servers then
we can suppose that they are smart enough to know what they are
doing. They wouldn't want to be sending their garbage out of
infected machines because they already know they can get into
enough trouble as it is just for sending out spam. Sending virii
would be an additional offence and the authorities would have all
the more reason to want to track them down. For this reason I
think the spammers would be cautious enough to avoid sending
virii. I think the spammers are smart enough to know how to keep
their machines clean.
> As long as Windows is allowed to exist and designed to keep secrets from
> its users, who knows *what* will be found in the various e-mail address
> books on Dozerware machines??
All the more reason for the movement afoot to go toward open
source software, software subject to peer review prior to being
released. Smart consumers want to know what they are getting before
they buy it. Why should they pay for the bad stuff when they can
get good stuff for free?
Sam Heywood
