[plug] WARNING: ***NASTY*** virus loose [attachments sliced]

[James Devenish]

In message <1076833534.1091.17.camel at syngery>
on Sun, Feb 15, 2004 at 04:25:34PM +0800, Chris Caston wrote:
> Yeah. Even people using at home as you listed in the second category
> (the ones that prefer to use it) would probably at least have AVG
> running.

[I'm sure part of Craig's motivation was ensuring that the list stays
friendly.] Despite the popularity of AVG (et al.), it is worth noting
that there is often a window of vulnerability between when a virus is
present "in the wild" and when a user downloads their updates (or when
the updates become available).

> There are also plenty of technical Windows users that get by without a
> virus scanner but use other safe practises like keeping their software
> updated and not opening silly attachments in the first place as well
> as perhaps using an ISP like arachnet that automatically scans e-mail
> attachments. 

I suppose that most people on this list would be that sensible. However,
it is worth noting that e-mail based attacks tend to raise a lot of "how
come I keep getting these bounces" enquiries. So, it is still worth
being aware of the environment.

> Still if you know how to use Linux it's silly to still use Windows.

I think it's already been established that some people on this list read
their e-mail on Windows machines at home (e.g. have a Linux machine for
experimentation, but still use an existing Windows machine/partition for
ongoing activities).