[etni] Re: viruses

**** ETNI on the web http://www.etni.org.il   http://www.etni.org   ****

On Sun, 2004-03-21 Dan wrote:
> We are receiving viruses with the ETNI@...... email addresses and also from
> some names I have on the list. To everyone -- please be careful out there.


Dear Dan - and everyone else on the list:

while there is no doubt one has to be extremely careful about viruses,
it should be stressed that *no virus* can come from ETNI list, due to
the fact that the list sends out messages in the text format that cannot
contain viruses, and never sends attachments.

If you read a bit about the latest generation of mail worms, you will
learn that they assume disguises to look harmless. They work like this:

a virus arrives at someone's PC as an e-mail attachment. The recipient
inadvertently opens the file, and the virus infection occurs.

The virus replicates itself by stealing a number of e-mail addresses
stored in the address book file of the infected computer and and sending
messages (identical or similar to the one it arrived with) to each one
of these recipients, with attachments. To make things harder to trace,
it replaces the "From" address with another one - usually also contained
in the address book of the infected computer.

Thus, the owner does not know his/her computer has been infected;
the recipients of the infected messages believe they received infected
messages from someone else, and start calling/e-mailing this latter
person trying to "alert" about the virus seemingly originating from that
computer; 
in the meantime, one or more of the recipients of this mass mailing
opens the attachment, and - see the beginning of my explanation. Next
round.

To find out where the virus really came from, you need to open the full
header of the message containing the malicious attachment. It will
reveal the real source.


You might ask what to do about it all. Be careful; keep your anti-virus
updated; never open dubious attachments.

All that is correct - and quite frustrating. I decided to take a more
drastic step. The machine I'm using for browsing the web and e-mailing
has been converted from Windows OS to Linux OS. Linux workstations are
practically invincible - viruses do not infect them. You cannot imagine
what a great feeling it gives one.

And, while I cannot recommend this conversion to everyone at the moment
[too tricky and not transparent enough], you should definitely keep an
eye on what's going on on the Linux front. As soon as Linux becomes
sufficiently user-friendly, dump your Windows and go for Linux. 2005 may
be the right time.

Best -

Lev


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