Bugtraq mailing list archives
Re: getting rid of outbreaks and spam
From: "Dave Warren" <dave.warren () devilsplayground net>
Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2004 13:12:42 -0700
Thor Larholm wrote:
2. In a broader view, notifications ARE currently the problem rather than a solution.I think we all recognize the fundamental truth that AV notifications are pure marketing. They contain no instructions on removing the virus and only serve to spread FUD. Somewhere sometime, a marketer at an AV company thought "hey, let's get new customers by notifying people that send the virus!", implemented it and everybody followed suit since "everybody is doing it, we might as well also".
Think back to the beginning. Before viruses emailed themselves out, back when viruses attached themselves to otherwise legitimate EXEs, DOCs(macro viruses), etc. In those days when I implemented a virus scanner, I didn't notify people initially (long story, it was a hacked together solution), I started getting complaints that email with attachments wasn't making it through. In this context, virus notifications were a positive thing. Next in the evolution we had viruses that emailed themselves out, wasn't Melissa one of the first? At any rate, in the beginning, viruses emailed out with a legitimate "MAIL FROM" address, so even then, notifications typically went to the correct sender, although in this case notifying the recipient wasn't very effective. -- Dave Warren, Email Address: dave.warren () devilsplayground net Cell: (403) 371-3470 Fax: (403) 371-3471 Toll free: (888) 371-3470 Vonage: (817) 886-0860 ICQ: 17848192 AIM: devilspgd Yahoo!: devilspgd MSN/PASSPORT: dave.warren () devilsplayground net
Current thread:
- Re: getting rid of outbreaks and spam Thor Larholm (Feb 06)
- Re: getting rid of outbreaks and spam Dave Warren (Feb 06)
- RE: getting rid of outbreaks and spam Larry Seltzer (Feb 09)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- RE: getting rid of outbreaks and spam Randal, Phil (Feb 10)