At 02:44 PM 11/10/1999 -0600, Claudia Stanny wrote:
>The older e-mail viruses only worked when you opened the attachment that
>carried the virus code. The newest virus (Bubbleman) is activated somehow
>when you highlight the incoming message that includes the attachment
>containing the virus. Scarey. (What I heard on NPR this morning suggests
>that this might work in this way only if you use Outlook for your e-mail,
>but I'm not sure.j)
To clarify on this issue (apart from the off-list response I sent to
Rip)... (see a tie to teaching further down...)
The BubbleBoy worm is being termed a "proof of concept" virus. It has not
been encountered in the "wild" yet. It was sent anonymously to several of
the major antivirus software makers and posted to numerous hacker websites
recently. It uses a method of distribution similar to that of the Melissa
virus. When activated it sends a message to everyone in your address book,
provided you are using MS Outlook or MS Outlook Express. It exploits a
weakness in some MS Active X components, just as Melissa did. It does not
damage your machine, but it will aggravate everyone in your address book as
well as potentially overloading the email servers (Melissa sent to the
first 50 addresses only, BubbleBoy sends to everyone). The difference is
that this virus exploits even more problems with Active X that allows it to
execute when you open the email message (no running of an attachment
required.) Not to bore people with my views on MS, let me just say that the
integration of this sort of technology into an operating system does not
seem to be a benefit to consumers...
Now, for the teaching relevance...well, somewhat teaching related...
I have been toying with the idea of accepting assignments via email. I
vaguely remember other TIPSters saying that they do this. My main
hesitation has been the virus threat. I have had students send me stuff via
email in the past which has been infected. If I do move to accepting
assignments via email I feel that I would have to insist on students making
sure that they maintain their antivirus software to help prevent spreading
viruses to me that could damage or destroy other students papers. For
example, if I opened a word document that was infected with a macro virus,
it could damage/destroy papers other students had submitted.
I was curious how those who are currently accepting assignments via email
handle the virus issue. Do you request students to scan documents for
viruses prior to submission? Do you inform them of the potential threat of
viruses? (Also, I would not require students to submit assignments this way
since many of our students are not terribly computer literate.)
Thanks for your input...
- Marc
G. Marc Turner, MEd
Lecturer & Head of Computer Operations
Department of Psychology
Southwest Texas State University
San Marcos, TX 78666
phone: (512)245-2526
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
