On Mon, 22 Sep 2003 12:41:50 -0700, Jim Kelley
wrote:

You seem to have missed the point. The particular operating system you
happen to run has nothing to do with whether or not viruses are sent to
your email address.

73, Jim AC6XG

Hi Jim,

I rely on the evidence of testimony here. 80% of the correspondents
who are also sufferers are using IE/OE in some form of Windows (hard
to do it otherwise). The servers (at least mine at Comcast which have
been infected by Blaster and infected my outgoing mail) are MS
products. MS products and OS's contain documented and autopsied
problems that support such virus activity.

I also use MS products (but certainly not their lame internet
applications). I have never performed a security upgrade, but instead
have simply disabled those faulty modules that they circulate as
product enhancements. Tools for such activity may be found at:
http://grc.com/default.htm
which provides more news and resource than all the nonsense wishing
away nightmares.

In that page's update TODAY is the warning:
"Many security watchers believe that a new worm, not unlike
"MSBlast" which targeted the previous DCOM/RPC vulnerability, is
virtually inevitable."

How many here even comprehend what DCOM is? Are we to be treated to a
new chorus of whines about how the ghosts of the internet haunt them?
I've had this problem fixed (courtesy of the same site) for several
months. Have you taken precautions? (I note you failed to respond to
my query about how you've fared through this latest attack.)

I can say without fear of contradiction that particular operating
systems (MS) are obviously correlated through history and actuality.
I also host a server on a fixed IP (http://12.230.78.56/) that has
surfed through all these disasters and still winging right along
unfazed. It supports an uncrackable OS simply because my net log
reveals no one is looking for anything but MS code. The only thing
that will crash it will be the log filling up (but no one is going to
find an executable to run - too many clowns and not enough
ringmasters).

As to having missed the point, I offer that part of my message you
missed reading:
Anyway, I have been engaged in a series of emails since this last
posting (with Mike) where he is averaging 1 hit a minute, and me none
for this entire time. By his accounts, it is from newsgroup
harvesting, and it would seem the majority of sufferers here picked up
the infection somewhere else (not rraa). Of the dozen odd other
groups I follow, this topic is alien to correspondents who show no
signs of infection.

These other users were also clearly (through header examination) MS
users. They were clearly not sufferers. That, or the Darwinian
mechanics thinned them out without chance for recovery (another MS
commonality) to complain, warn, or join in chorus of whine.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC