At 12:46 AM 5/12/00 +0100, Felix von Leitner wrote:
>Thus spake John W. Lemons III ([EMAIL PROTECTED]):
> > I disagree with the assertion that virus scanners are non-solutions. On
> > the mail servers I run, I have installed some simple virus scanning
> > software, and it has, up to now, filtered out lots of incoming virii and
> > trojans, as well as a few outgoing virii (which alerted me as to who was
> > infected, and allowed me to advise the IT folks so they could go clean it
> > up). Its not a perfect solution, but its far better than nothing, and
> > results in our location not becoming a source for that kind of garbage.
>
>Let me get this straight.
>
>Based on the fact that your virus scanner detected a few outgoing virii,
>you assert not only that it has detected all of them.
I don't see how you got "All" out of "filtered out lots of incoming virii
and trojans", which clearly does not say it covers everything. Please stop
generalizing.
>And the role of your IT department is to walk around and clean up virus
>infections.
>What kind of institution are you working in?
><snip!>
>In Europe, Elementary Schools have more professional IT departments than that.
IT Departments are there to solve user problems, and to solve
company/institution problems. A virus can quite happily be both. I have
seen a number of 'network/computer issues' (outside of the office I am in)
that have been related to virii causing unpredictable behavior. Ignoring
the problem only allows it to fester, and will only make the final cleanup
(which will most definitely be the IT Departments problem) much longer,
problematic, and far more costly. How much does your company/institution
price it's data, and it's down-time?
And what operating system your network clients run is not always your
decision to make. Add to that the fact that the more complex the
application and operating system, the more likely bugs are introduced, with
the consequence that there will always be some sort of exploit for a hell
of a lot of software, even on Unix/Posix based platforms. A good (fairly
secure) operating system (which really means the kernel and a few select
tools) doesn't mean that the applications will necessarily follow suit.
>One of my favourite sayings is: "Everyone has the computing platform he
>deserves." And for your statements here, you deserve all the Windows
>2000 that you can carry.
Unfortunately you don't always have the choice that you may want, simply
due to the nature of your business, or due to lack of applications. Many
people I know wish they had the luxury of having everyone using a
non-windows platform for clients. I'm quite lucky that we are heading in
that direction, but we will not be windowless for a while yet.
A virus scanner isn't the whole solution. But it's a part of a solution
that is definitely worth investigating. It may not necessarily be part of
your solution, but your solution isn't necessarily good for anyone else either.
Stuart Young - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
(aka Cefiar) - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[All opinions expressed in the above message are my]
[own and not necessarily the views of my employer..]
