Benjamin J. Weiss said:
> Wow, Hal, guess've just slept the last year or so. Ever heard of
> Slapper? At one point it had infected at least 13,000 distinct machines:
I've missed most of this thread, but it seemed to me that the point is
that viruses don't spread on Linux via e-mail/attachments, the way that,
say, Klez or Blaster do. The mechanism of Slapper's spread (and the very
few other worms that infect Linux/Unix hosts) is very, very different.
Outlook is built to support the spread of worms and viruses, but there is
no equivalent function in Linux -- unless it's supported by a heavy dose
of social engineering ("I promise, when you save this attachment and
change its permissions to executable and log in a root and run this
program, it'll be really really cool! I promise!"). :)
Having said that, it's a good idea to have at least *some* degree of virus
protection on your *nix system. Most infections have to be cleaned out by
hand, but if you run a mail server (or even a little mailhost in your
house like I do), it can be a startlingly good idea to put some sort of
virus protection tool on it, if only to prevent any viruses from spreading
among your networked computers that are infected with Outlook -- er, I
mean, with worms.
Sliante,
Richard S. Crawford
http://www.mossroot.com http://www.stonegoose.com/catseyeview
AIM: Buffalo2K ICQ: 11646404 Y!: rscrawford
MSN: underpope@xxxxxxxxxxx
Howard Dean for America: http://www.deanforamerica.com
"It is only with the heart that we see rightly; what is essential is
invisible to the eye." --Antoine de Saint Exupéry
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