Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!usc!apple!rutgers!netnews.upenn.edu!vax1.cc.lehigh.edu!sei.cmu.edu!krvw From: fac2@dayton.saic.com (Earle Ake) Newsgroups: comp.virus Subject: Re: Shrink Wrap...still safe? Message-ID: <0002.9001151235.AA07390@ge.sei.cmu.edu> Date: 12 Jan 90 14:14:40 GMT Sender: Virus Discussion List Lines: 29 Approved: krvw@sei.cmu.edu JZH1@MARISTB.BITNET (Craig W. Fisher) writes: > At a meeting yesterday some people made comments that some viruses > have been found in shrink-wrapped diskettes. This did surprise me as > we have been using a rule of thumb to stick to shrink wrapped software > to help avoid viruses. What comments &/or advice do you have for this > situation? > Thanks, Craig If you have a virus on your system that reproduced your master diskette, that virus could infect the copy. If the store that re-sells your software takes off the shrink-wrap, tests the program and re-shrink-wraps it, there is a chance of a virus infecting it there. If someone buys a package, takes it home and discovers it will not work on his system and returns the software, the store re-shrink-wraps it and sells it for new. Yet another way to infect a disk even though it was sold 'shrink-wrapped'. Do we have to put all software in tamper-resistant packaging like Tylenol? If a store tries a package out so they can be able to tell customers how good it is, can they sell that diskette as new software still? Do we have to demand a no-returns policy on software? Hey, the customer might have a shrink-wrap machine available to them and would be able to shrink-wrap and return as new. Where do we draw the line? Shrink-wrap doesn't mean virus-free! _____________________________________________________________________________ ____ ____ ___ Earle Ake /___ /___/ / / Science Applications International Corporation ____// / / /__ Dayton, Ohio ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Internet: fac2%dayton.saic.com@uunet.uu.net uucp: uunet!dayvb!fac2