Hi George and Ravinder:
We really like to discourage off-topic discussions,
including virus warnings.
Here are some points I'd like to make:
1. The IEEE majordomo listserver includes virus checking
(for known viruses) of all messages posted to the
listserver. IEEE virus checking is reasonably up-to-
date. To our knowledge, the IEEE majordomo software
has never forwarded a virus. (Also see item 4.)
2. We discourage all mail formats except ASCII text.
I believe ASCII text cannot transmit a virus. If you
are using Outlook or a similar mailer, we suggest you
use the "plain text" option when posting to emc-pstc.
(I'm not sure if Netscape mail has a "plain text"
feature.)
3. We discourage attachments of any kind. As far as I
know, viruses are in attachments, not in ASCII text.
Majordomo has an attachment limit of 100k, so emc-pstc
messages rarely have attachments. (We probably should
be discouraging V-card and similar signature
attachments.)
4. Some viruses will use addresses from saved mail
messages themselves, not just the address book. So,
if a message was posted by you to emc-pstc and ends
up in a mailbox that is attacked by a virus, then
you will probably get that virus.
5. Some viruses insert bogus addresses into the From
line. So, you can't rely on the virus as having been
sent from the address on the message header.
6. A virus cannot post a message to emc-pstc (except
from your mailbox). We have a closed list; only
subscribers can post messages to emc-pstc.
7. If you have not posted a message to emc-pstc, then
no one (except majordomo and the admins) know your
e-mail address. This means that if you have not
posted a message to emc-pstc, then the address used
by the virus did not come from emc-pstc.
We feel we have some pretty good controls on virus-
spreading via emc-pstc.
We have no control over what happens when your posted
message with your address ends up in a mailbox that is
subject to a virus attack. Your address can be forwarded
to anyone anywhere in the world. That's one of the risks
of e-mail, and it is multiplied if you post messages to a
listserver such as emc-pstc.
If you have received an .exe attachment to an emc-pstc
message, please contact me or one of the other admins at
the footer to the emc-pstc messages. We don't want even
a new virus to be forwarded by majordomo. Armed with
this info, we'll see what we can do to prevent any
such future distribution.
If you want to discuss this further, please do so off-
line. I, as well as our admins, would be happy to discuss
further any virus issues and the emc-pstc listserver.
With best regards,
Rich
-------------------------------------------
This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety
Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list.
Visit our web site at: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/pstc/
To cancel your subscription, send mail to:
majord...@ieee.org
with the single line:
unsubscribe emc-pstc
For help, send mail to the list administrators:
Michael Garretson: pstc_ad...@garretson.org
Dave Heald davehe...@mediaone.net
For policy questions, send mail to:
Richard Nute: ri...@ieee.org
Jim Bacher: j.bac...@ieee.org
All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at:
http://www.rcic.com/ click on "Virtual Conference Hall,"
