Journal Entries
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Viruses (again)
Posted May 2, 2004
OK, so it's 5 weeks since I posted my last journal entry about computer viruses, and still the variants of Netsky, Beagle, etc. flood in - 670 in my inbox last week.
It suddenly dawned on me - none of these viruses do any actual damage to a computer - they mail themselves on, but rarely do they do any damage like the really old DOS viruses which would delete files or even format a hard drive willingly for you.
Perhaps once a mass-mailing email virus comes along that DOES delete files, people will sit up and listen and I won't be downloading several megabytes of viruses each day.
I can't wait.
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Latest reply: May 2, 2004
April 1st
Posted Apr 1, 2004
Am I the only person who gets a little bored after seeing the 10th April Fools posting/advert/article of the day?
Discuss this Journal entry [1]
Latest reply: Apr 1, 2004
Woo hoo!
Posted Mar 28, 2004
OK, so they're not on there any more, but earlier this week I had two entries on the front page at the same time (Keratoconus, and Practical Tips for Driving in France)!
OK, so my contribution to Practical Tips was minimal, but it's a wonderful feeling 
Now, how to get three on at a time...
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Latest reply: Mar 28, 2004
Solutions to email-borne viruses
Posted Mar 7, 2004
(reposted as I inadvertently deleted this from my Journal earlier)
It can't have escaped many peoples' attentions that there's a bit of a turf war going on at the moment. I've personally received 735 viruses in my inbox in the last two weeks, with no sign of the tide stopping or even reducing, at least not in the short term.
The incredible thing is how this is still an issue. There are a couple of approaches that could stop the spread pretty much overnight if used correctly.
INTERNET PROVIDERS
Internet providers provide mail servers. Generally pretty good, reliable ones, so there is absolutely no reason for anyone to be running an email server from their own computer.
In that case, why do internet providers allow this? Blocking the ports used to send mail would prevent spam and viruses being sent without the user's knowledge, making life easier for the rest of us.
Sure, some people would whine about this but if they really need to run a mail server they should get a non-residential service.
Doing so would actually reduce costs for an internet provider because of the savings in bandwidth - unlike end-users, the ISP pays for its connectivity based on the amount of data transferred.
EDUCATION
As long as my virus scanner is updated regularly, it's going to be pretty hard for me to get infected, more so because I know not to open unsolicited email attachments offering me 'a powful tool' or similar.
I didn't get the Blaster worm because my computer runs Windows Update for me regularly, so I had the appropriate patch long before the virus started distributing itself.
I run a decent personal firewall, so even if I did get inadvertently infected the virus couldn't spread without me giving it explicit permission to do so.
People need education. Every internet provider should provide simple (and usually free) security tools, and information on what to do and not to do to keep safe online. Most people would sit up and listen if they realised that there was a possibility that their data was at risk if they didn't take simple precautions.
None of this would be too hard to put in place. It took five minutes to persuade my father of the need to keep his computer updated, and some internet providers have already put their security arrangements in place. Certainly, something needs to be done before email is destroyed as a useful communications medium.
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Latest reply: Mar 7, 2004
Chat rooms
Posted Mar 7, 2004
A newsgroup is *not* a chatroom.
A web forum is *not* a chatroom.
A mailing list is *not* a chatroom.
Newspapers, online news sites, TV programs, please take note.
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Latest reply: Mar 7, 2004
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stjarna
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