Klarinet Archive - Posting 000228.txt from 2004/03

From: "David C Kumpf" <dkumpf@------.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Virus
Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2004 11:45:04 -0500

Tom Wood wrote:
> Mark and Ken...........Am I correct in assuming that your average
> 'firewall' setup between a small office LAN and the ISP is no help
> protecting the LAN from a virus that enters the LAN as email
> or an email
> attachment?

Well, I'm not Mark or Ken. ;-) But the answer is: it depends. Zonealarm, for
example, can be configured to render incoming email attachments (mostly)
harmless by changing their extension to one not recognized as an executable
file. (There may be other features as well; I haven't looked at them.) I say
"mostly" because it's always possible for the user to save the file and
change the extension back to something that is harmful.

However, I don't use this feature, as I receive a number of attachments in
the course of my work. Instead, I use Norton Antivirus and keep the scanner
updated. I haven't encountered a virus infection on any of my office
machines in many years. (Client machines are another story.)

Dave Kumpf
dkumpf@------.com