Why would anyone think that you sent a virus or worm just because your
message has the name of the virus or worm in it? Some unreliable trojan
and virus detectors in the past would send up false warnings. If
anyones virus scanner does this then I would question it's reliability.
Surely a good virus scanner can tell the difference between a virus and
text string. His virus scanner may be suffering from *paranoia;)
I went years without a virus scanner. Never opened an email attachment
from unreliable sources, never used java based or html based mail
readers like Outlook, and did not use floppy disk from other sources.
When I finally installed a virus scanner it found nothing. I belive
virus scanners give false since of security and also use up a lot system
resources and memory. They are very over-rated and companies like
Mcafee and Symantec pray on your paranoia. The media, in particularly
CNN helps to promote it. Just think what would virus writers do if
there exploits didn't get all that attention? What would they do if
everyone pretended not to notice?
Another fad going around is personal firewalls and firewall like warning
systems, ZA. Here paranoia gives software makers another opportunity to
make money. Most people do not run file sharing, web server, email
server, ftp server, etc. So ask your self this, if you're not running
ANY services, then do you really need a firewall at all?
I was challenged to break into an iMac computer. Trojans wouldn't work
because the user is tech savy and would never open the attachment; he
also uses text based MUA. So I would have to rely on some remote
connection method since I did not have physical access to the machine.
No luck. the iMac doesn't run any services by default so I could not
connect. In essence, he doesn't need a firewall at all. My friend
thinks Macs are the best and when I recommended he get ZA or some other
type of firewall/warning system make for a Mac, he said show me why I
need a firewall. I failed. He really does not need a firewall.
Windows 95 started it all. Without you knowing it shared your network
info and system to the world using windows netbios file sharing. MS
introduced us to HTML mail with graphics, tables, and java script. Now
that presented another problem. Later came or was it first(?) NT 4.0
with the blue screen bug in which anyone from a remove location could
lock up your machine (aka the blue screen of death).
As far as I know, Macs have never had these types of problems. MS
called these features (execpt for the BSOD), I call them software bugs
which should have been fixed during development before the product
shipped, or at leasted informed the user about the file sharing or
javascript capabilities and how to get rid of it.
Many programmers and network specialist I know do not use any virus
scanner. The scanner can cause problems when build certain applications
and use up needed memory. Gee, I wonder why they don't get a virus.
Maybe it's as simple as being aware of where virus come from and how
they infect your system.
All system bios' have a boot virus protection program, all you have to
do is turn it on.
jay
paranoia:
"A psychological disorder characterized by delusions of persecution or
grandeur"
Rita wrote:
> Thanks for the info! Glad to know it's not only me and my son. To
> make matters worse I have been hit with at least 9 viruses in the
> past 10 days on my home computer and on web based accounts. The
> latest is the w95x.hybrisx.worm and the w32x.badtrans.13312@xmm
> virus I added 2 X's in each so you do not think I am sending a
> virus.
>
> I am so sick of the internet I am getting totally paranoid! I
> keep getting email from a fellow who tells me I am sending him
> the badtrans and I know it is not my system. I am clean unless
> Norton's is lying. If it were, others would have noticed the
> attachments. He just will not stop. *sigh*
>
> Welcome to the 21's century. It's gonna get worse folks.
>
>
> Rita
>
>
>
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