Re: [IMail Forum] Is it our Responsibility

[NetQuick Mail Administration]

    If you are going to head down this road, take a good look at the M$N
Hotmail/NAI Mcafee anti-virus disclaimer.  I think that you should be sure
to get a well written best efforts statement from your legal
department/consultant on this.  Any effort is better than none.  I have seen
customers/clients get nailed by old well documented viruses just because
they either don't have any form of anti virus or they haven't kept it
current.  While in the military, older viruses were always showing up
because old documents & plans were stored in safes for long periods of time
and then brought out annually for review and updating.  The only solution
for this was to at keep all of the anti-virus software up to date and an
annual scanning of all stored media.  Figure how many users really do this?

    While it is an end user responsibility, as a service provider we are
providing an additional service by doing any form of anti-spam/virus
filtering.  It's not our responsibility, but a best business practice.  If
you are providing anti-spam/virus your company should have some form of
legal disclaimer but you can also use it as a value added service in your
marketing.  That is really all that M$N Hotmail is doing.

    If you are a private/institutional department, it should come under the
heading of defending your network and your company.  And really in the long
run if you are a MIS/Network services guy, your just saving yourself some
extra work.  Of course you can present it in a much more favorable light to
your superiors I'm sure.

Kevin Childers

----- Original Message -----
From: "Len Conrad" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, February 23, 2001 6:49 PM
Subject: Re: [IMail Forum] Is it our Responsibility


>
> >(1) Is it our responsibilty as providers of mail to stop virus's
> >from entering another persons network/computer through our mail
> >server?  I posed the question to myself and not quiet sure how to
> >answer.  I personally don't think it is, what do you guys do?
>
> Attempting / "best effort / best practice" to stop viruses isn't part
> of my ToS. It is a payable option.
>
> Some ISP's refuse to get in the AV loop because of their liability if
> the AV scanner lets a nasty one through and destroys all of a clients
> computers.  I've never heard of an AV software supplier getting sued
> because a virus hit his clients before the software supplier updated
> his virus database.
>
> But just like no software company is liable for damages due to bugs
> or workmanship, there must be some protection for ISP AV services.
>
> >(2) From an ISP standpoint, what do you all consider excessive use
> >on the mail server?  A certain number of messages per day?  Or maybe
> >a certain number of Bytes sent or received.
>
> The more the merrier, because it costs the client to use our
> facilities, proportionate to their usage. We don't allow unlimited
> volumes.  Usage fees apply, per volume of msg traffic.  Metered usage.
>
> Len
>
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>
>
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