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Reader Comments on Aardvark Daily 3 October 2002

Note: the comments below are the unabridged submissions of readers and do
not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publisher.

 

From: John Elsbury
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: Antivirus measures

Good stuff in the PDF document.  You might like to add a
link to the Sophos "safe hex" page, and a link to the CERT
home user general security advisories.

I should also mention that configuring Outlook Express so
that it doesn't AUTOMATICALLY add every addressee to your
address book when you send an e-mail message, especially
when you reply to a group e-mail, is a *very good idea* --
another "Microsoft default".




From: Marc McAllister
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: Claytons Virus's

I have to agree on a Computer warrant of fitness.  I would also like to
stae that more annoying is a HOAX virus.  The reciever should take the
time to check out the clams of his/her virus they have recieved
reccomending he/she send this warning to all maill address.  I reciev
about thre to four of these most weeks and they are annoying. Please get a
minimum understanding of the ease to stop and correct this situation




From: Richard Callan
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: Viruses and computer WoF's

I find it intrigueing that viruses are still a problem after
all of the information regarding them that has been
promulgated about them in the past few years.  No matter
what any-one says the problem basically comes down to the
fully open default settings of Microsoft software.

Downloading patches and closing the holes in IE,
Outlook(Express), Netmeeting etc. is a never ending chore.
Perhaps if more people removed these offending items from
their systems the problem would be much reduced.

In my case I run a never patched Win98 modified with the
PcLite program to remove (at least functionally) these
applications. For browsing I use Mozilla or Opera with all
scripting turned off.  Both programs include e-mail clients,
news readers and instant messaging. I also have Pegasus Mail
(a very good NZ product, if lacking some of the bells and
whistles of the MS products that I am sure many people never
use). Combined with at least 1 anti-virus application
running all the time and a fire-wall or 2 I feel security is
much improved.

Regarding the need to have the most recent virus definitions
is a bit of a red herring as modern AV's mostly have
excellent heuristics and can detect what they call
"virus-like activity"

By using this path there is no need to go the Unix/Linux
path which is however at, the moment, possibly the even
safer route.

I hope that my thoughts are of interest to your readers.




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