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.Hit Reload For Latest Comments
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