[67346] in North American Network Operators' Group

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Re: Dumb users spread viruses

daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (alex@pilosoft.com)
Sun Feb 8 19:28:01 2004

Date: Sun, 8 Feb 2004 19:08:26 -0500 (EST)
From: alex@pilosoft.com
Cc: nanog@merit.edu
In-Reply-To: <g3vfmhxk92.fsf@sa.vix.com>
Errors-To: owner-nanog-outgoing@merit.edu


> In this past year's tour of my friends and family, I've taken to
> removing their antivirus software at the same time I remove their
> spyware, and I've taken to installing Mozilla (with its IMAP client) as
> a way to keep the machine from having any dependency on anti-virus
> software.  IT managers are encouraged to consider a similar move next
> time they're asked to approve the renewal costs of a campus-wide
> anti-virus license.
> 
> There is nothing wrong with a user who thinks they should not have to know
> how to protect their computer from virus infections.  If we (the community
> who provides them service and software) can't make it safe-by-default, then
> the problem rests with us, not with the end users.
And tomorrow's worm will instead send itself to Mozilla addressbook
instead of Outlook addressbook, and users will keep clicking on "Open" 
when they see an attachment "DANCING BEARS - OPEN ME.SCR" or "Mozilla 
Internet Patch.exe".

(I agree with spyware aspect though)

-alex


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