Dee D. Flint wrote:

"David or Jo Anne Ryeburn" wrote in message
...

In article , "Dee D.
Flint" wrote:


I've tried to trap them but the headers and senders, etc are all

different.

The "From:" lines are likely forged. Many such worms and viruses pick
recipients and purported senders randomly from the infected computer's
Outlook or Outlook Express address list. If you want to see where the
message really is coming from, examine full headers carefully --
specifically, the "Received: from" lines.


If you have a suggestion on how to stop them, please let us all in on

it.

Persuade the universe to cease using unsafe operating system software,
browsers, and e-mail programs coming from Redmond, WA ;-). UNIX, including
the version now marketed by Apple, is pretty safe.

David, ex-W8EZE, whose computers are happily MS-free except for safe 11
year old versions of Word and Excel


If everyone switched to UNIX, the solution would be short-lived as the virus
writers would then switch to attacking it. Right now, they simply get more
"bang for the buck" by attacking Windows and it doesn't give them much of a
thrill to also go after UNIX system users or Apple computer users.

You have touched on the answer, Dee.

What computer and software manufacturers have done that is a fatal flaw
in their systems is insist that "EVERYTHING HAS TO BE THE SAME" I
remember the abuse that I took from PC users because I was running an
Amiga for so many years. Installed User Base, PC Compatibility and other
mantras were tossed at me and others who dared to use "non-standard"
computers like the Amiga and the Mac.

But here we are undergoing attack after attack because of what. 95
percent of us are using the same platform, the same OS and the same
software. We are going through an computer analog (heh heh) of the Irish
potato famine.

I do like to draw a parallel between the agricultural monoculture and
computer monoculture. Only grow one crop, and you're vulnerable.

Whether MS likes it or not, one big step toward a cure (besides them
writing incredibly poor software) is for there to be several different
types of email software. This software is not to be crippled by all the
features that they try to add, with every feature seems to come a new
vulnerability. Especially things like IE and Outlook coupling up mailing
addys.

I personally use only the MS products that I absolutely have to, and
will not use their mailing system. I use Netscape for mail, and it works
okay. If Netscape were to somehow become the big mail program - which
will never happen - I'll switch to something else.

But the majority of PC users are unwilling to believe this sort of
rationale, as they scramble daily to update their Virus definitions, an
other stunts that don't really work too well.

After all, there has to be a virus that infect a computer before there
can be a definition for it.

- Mike KB3EIA -

Mike Coslo wrote:
Dee D. Flint wrote:
"David or Jo Anne Ryeburn" wrote:
"Dee D. Flint" wrote:

If you have a suggestion on how to stop them, please let us all in on
it.

Persuade the universe to cease using unsafe operating system software,
browsers, and e-mail programs coming from Redmond, WA ;-). UNIX, including
the version now marketed by Apple, is pretty safe.

David, ex-W8EZE, whose computers are happily MS-free except for safe 11
year old versions of Word and Excel


If everyone switched to UNIX, the solution would be short-lived as the virus
writers would then switch to attacking it. Right now, they simply get more
"bang for the buck" by attacking Windows and it doesn't give them much of a
thrill to also go after UNIX system users or Apple computer users.

You have touched on the answer, Dee.

David is the one who touched on it. The answer *is* to use an
OS designed to be secure. Microsoft products are not, while
virtually all of the current unix systems are. Some unixes (the
ones with open source code, which does not include Apple) do
have higher potential for good security than others.

The "bang for the buck" argument is proof of it too. If you
want a *bang*, then shutdown the *entire* Internet, not just
some percentage of the hosts connected to it. The fact is
that from the start the Internet itself ran on unix. That is
less true today, but it is still true enough that if one could
write a virus to knock out unix, one could just shut the
Internet off for days.

But, of course, it can't be done (or that is exactly what they
would be doing).

--
Floyd L. Davidson http://web.newsguy.com/floyd_davidson
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)

On 23 Sep 2003 18:00:04 -0800, Floyd Davidson
wrote:

Mike Coslo wrote:
Dee D. Flint wrote:
"David or Jo Anne Ryeburn" wrote:
"Dee D. Flint" wrote:

If you have a suggestion on how to stop them, please let us all in on
it.

Persuade the universe to cease using unsafe operating system software,
browsers, and e-mail programs coming from Redmond, WA ;-). UNIX, including
the version now marketed by Apple, is pretty safe.

David, ex-W8EZE, whose computers are happily MS-free except for safe 11
year old versions of Word and Excel


If everyone switched to UNIX, the solution would be short-lived as the virus
writers would then switch to attacking it. Right now, they simply get more
"bang for the buck" by attacking Windows and it doesn't give them much of a
thrill to also go after UNIX system users or Apple computer users.

You have touched on the answer, Dee.

David is the one who touched on it. The answer *is* to use an
OS designed to be secure. Microsoft products are not, while
virtually all of the current unix systems are. Some unixes (the
ones with open source code, which does not include Apple) do
have higher potential for good security than others.

The "bang for the buck" argument is proof of it too. If you
want a *bang*, then shutdown the *entire* Internet, not just
some percentage of the hosts connected to it. The fact is
that from the start the Internet itself ran on unix. That is
less true today, but it is still true enough that if one could
write a virus to knock out unix, one could just shut the
Internet off for days.

But, of course, it can't be done (or that is exactly what they
would be doing).

Unfortunately this is an academic argument as the "rest-of-the-world",
is not going to change and wouldn't change if you provided it
free...which much already is.

The vast majority wouldn't change even if you installed UNIX, or LINUX
and set up the applications.

Then, most of those who would be willing to use one of those "if you
set it up", they would want mail and news readers that do the same as
Outlook and Outlook Express. If the OS didn't open them to the world
their applications would albeit they would be less likely to trash the
OS ...

Roger Halstead (K8RI EN73 & ARRL Life Member)
www.rogerhalstead.com
N833R World's oldest Debonair? (S# CD-2)