Benjamin J. Weiss said:

> Wow, Hal, guess've just slept the last year or so.  Ever heard of
> Slapper? At one point it had infected at least 13,000 distinct machines:

I've missed most of this thread, but it seemed to me that the point is
that viruses don't spread on Linux via e-mail/attachments, the way that,
say, Klez or Blaster do.  The mechanism of Slapper's spread (and the very
few other worms that infect Linux/Unix hosts) is very, very different. 
Outlook is built to support the spread of worms and viruses, but there is
no equivalent function in Linux -- unless it's supported by a heavy dose
of social engineering ("I promise, when you save this attachment and
change its permissions to executable and log in a root and run this
program, it'll be really really cool!  I promise!").  :)

Having said that, it's a good idea to have at least *some* degree of virus
protection on your *nix system.  Most infections have to be cleaned out by
hand, but if you run a mail server (or even a little mailhost in your
house like I do), it can be a startlingly good idea to put some sort of
virus protection tool on it, if only to prevent any viruses from spreading
among your networked computers that are infected with Outlook -- er, I
mean, with worms.


Sliante,
Richard S. Crawford

http://www.mossroot.com   http://www.stonegoose.com/catseyeview
AIM: Buffalo2K ICQ: 11646404 Y!: rscrawford
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Howard Dean for America:  http://www.deanforamerica.com
"It is only with the heart that we see rightly; what is essential is
invisible to the eye." --Antoine de Saint Exupéry



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