Klarinet Archive - Posting 000222.txt from 2004/03

From: Jeremy A Schiffer <schiffer@------.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Virus
Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2004 11:16:53 -0500

A few words on this topic, since this is what I'm paid (pretty good money)
to do for a living:

1) If you are receiving tons of virus laden messages, complain to your
systems administrators. There is NO EXCUSE for not blocking these messages
if a company has full time people managing their network and email
systems. In the latest outbreak, there were exactly ZERO messages
delivered to the 50,000+ Columbia University email IDs, because we have
filters in place that either reject the message outright or remove
malicious content before it can ever reach the end user.

2) SpamAssassin and MIMEDefang are beautiful things - when configured
properly. If your systems administrators stare blankly at you when you
mention them, tell them to learn how to do their jobs. If the problem
continues, talk to your ISP or company management. There are plenty of out
of work people who are more than qualified to run email services.
Incompentent people should not keep their jobs just because they have
'experience' at their current place of employment. If they cannot keep the
network reasonably secure, they should not be employed in that capacity.
Inertia is not a valid business practice.

2.5) If you can, change your ISP to one that does a better job at blocking
things. Talk to you friends and see which ones have better experiences. If
people leave the lousy ISPs en masse, they'll go out of business or learn
that they have to change their practices.

3) Use UNIX for reading email. I've used PINE on UNIX exclusively since
1992 and never had a problem. Sure, it makes downloading attachments a
little inconvenient, but these days, that's a good thing...

4) Use vigilance. NEVER open an email attachment you were not expecting.
Even if looks like it comes from your mother, or brother, or someone else
you know. Either delete the message or pick up the phone and ask them
whether they sent it to you. If it wasn't specifically meant for you,
delete it.

4.5) Never click on a link from an email message, unless you know for sure
the source is legitimate. It's possible to hide characters in URLs, so it
looks like you're being taken to one site, but really you're being
directed elsewhere. This is primarily the case for people who use MS
products (IE, Outlook, Outlook Express, etc.) to read mail. It's better to
just type the URL into the Address bar yourself, because then you know
where it's really going.

Okay, that's all for now.

Happy and SAFE computing,

-jeremy