On Sat, 06 May 2000, [EMAIL PROTECTED] generated:
>A Linux user in a mostly Outlook site might be flooded with lots of
>mail from her colleagues, and suffer inconvenience from the servers
>being taken offline but would lose no local files.
OK, I think I've sorted it now... you're arguing from a linux-as-desktop
perspective, I'm coming from the linux-as-server line.
I agree totally that using mutt/pine/elm/whatever on a Linux or anything
non-MS operating system -- as a workstation -- won't be affected by this
or any other .vbs "virus".
My point was that from a server perspective, and it's not just Linux
here, any mailserver, NT as well, there is a risk involved. It's not
caused by the "virus" itself, because the .vbs code isn't being executed
on the server, but by a side effect of the fact that Outlook *does*
execute the .vbs code. At the place where I work, everyone but us
techies use Outlook on 'doze. And each of them has everyone else in the
company in their addressbook, plus however many other contacts they
have. There is a risk on our server that this "virus" comes in, sends
itself thru one Outlook to everyone else, and that our server gets hit
by 100s, even 1000s of emails in a short period of time.
OK, so I'm being pedantic. It's not the real email "virus", it's a
side effect of the way it spreads. But as I said, if the mailserver
goes down due to a flood of "ILOVEYOU"s or evil mutant clones, the PHB
isn't going to care about the difference between executing the contents
of the mail and merely carrying it.
>The point about pedantry is that sometimes we techos are our own worst
>promoters. The media is saying "all computers are vulnerable" and we
>should correct that by telling them that "some of us use responsible software
>and we may have been inconvenienced but we are largely unaffected".
Yup. Anyway, a few lines of sendmail config and my whole argument is
moot ;)
--
jamesw
<Hoju> Keyboard solo! skskskskskskskskskskskskskskskskskskskskksksksksks
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