Matt Brown ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
: Felix von Leitner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
: > If running a virus scanner would be free (i.e. does not reduce security,
: > does not eat up CPU time on the email server, does not use memory, does
: > not cost time and money to maintain) then I would not be against it.
: Nothing is free. All that is possible is that the cost is less than
: the benefits.
(Hi Felix)
I would say the cost is higher than normally reckoned: you end up
with dumber users, and that's pretty expensive.
I've been thinking of a scheme in which attachments of certain
"dangerous" types get mangled, such that the filenames or types
are intentionally misdeclared. So the user ends up with a plain
base64 text file, which is meaningless, but which he can trivially
decode to the original.
This places the burden of vigilance back on the user where it
belongs, rather than breeding a generation of click-happy users.
And if he does decode and run it, and it is a virus, you can point a
very accusing finger instead of a palms-up shrug.
-harold
