> > So lets keep this in context:
> > The viruses are Outlook viruses, generally on Windows. The problem
> > is terrifically clear. The solutions usually just address the symptom
> > of the problem.
>
> Unfortunately, it's impossible to force people to switch away from
> Windows. Let's be honest, 99% of people would be better off running a
> Mac. (and no, I don't own one).
>
> We(*) ask our kids things like "If johnny {played in the middle of the
> busy street|jumped off a cliff} would you do it too?, while forgetting
> that for the most part that's exactly what we're doing, computerwise, as
> a society. It's quite depressing how an unreliable OS has trained people
> to expect that technology blows up all the time.
>
>
> (*) There is no "we"
Had a client (very large financial company) that figured out
that cleaning up after virii and all their work to prevent it
(software, plus extra personnel, plus lost production time)
was costing them too much. They banned Outlook (not windows).
My coworker was there when security showed up at a guys desk
and escorted him out. He'd been caught using it 3 times and
they'd just had it. He'd pulled down a pop message from his
ISP and it ran a virus that hit their file server.
See ya.
This was not a small company, this was not a particularly
forward thinking company. This was just a company that
did cost/benefit analysis on Outlook usage.
Quoting Alan Brown ([EMAIL PROTECTED]):
> On Thu, 18 Jul 2002, Chuck Yerkes wrote:
>
> > If we're here to say "far better" then don't use clients that
> > run code.
>
> Agreed.
>
> My experience is that the virus code targets windows/outlook because
> it's easy.
>
> In the past, viruses have also attacked various AV packages -
> predominantly the targetted packages are McAfee and Norton because of
> their high advertising profiles.
>
> It's better to use 2 sets of AV software for scanning in any case
>
> > If you pull down a virus via POP, there is no danger.
> > Until you run it. I've been using Mutt and Evolution. I have
> > no virus danger. They won't run stuff. Oh, even if they did,
> > it won't have much luck on BSD.
>
> Until someone comes along with a virus for $OS_FLAVOUR.
And that OS allows it to happen.
Run rampant as ME on my machine (BSD, Mac OS X, VMS, whatever)
and you'll wreck my directory and... that's about it.
You can't rewrite boot blocks, your document can't send email
to everyone I know (okay, Word on OS X can, but that's still the
same disease and the problem isn't the OS X part).
If you take your personal OS that speaks to a LAN, and decide
that the Internet is just a large LAN, then you have a big problem.
But lets get back to qpopper....
