Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!ucsd!ucbvax!bloom-beacon!eru!hagbard!sunic!news.funet.fi!uwasa.fi!ts From: ts@uwasa.fi (Timo Salmi) Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d Subject: Re: New anti-virals from McAfee's BBS uploaded to SIMTEL20 Message-ID: <1990Dec6.191045.27773@uwasa.fi> Date: 6 Dec 90 19:10:45 GMT References: <1990Dec6.082850.27365@menudo.uh.edu> Organization: University of Vaasa Lines: 39 In article <1990Dec6.082850.27365@menudo.uh.edu> wjin@viking.UUCP (Woochang Jin) writes: > >How do I know whether these anti-virals themselves may be infected or not ? In absolute terms you don't know, but the risk is small since usually these originate from McAfee's bulletin board. 16. ***** Q: Am I safe against viruses if download files from FTP sites? A: I'll give some information on this from an FTP moderator's point of view. The official stand is the following directly from one of our file lists: No liability is accepted for the consequences of using, or the inability to use, any of these files. No absolute guarantees are given that these programs are clean from nasties, although none have been in evidence. Please duly observe shareware rules wherever indicated. But remember that there are no absolute guarantees _whatever_ your sources are. There have even been cases of contaminated commercial products. So the safety factor will never be a 100 per cent whether you keep on downloading from ftp sites or not. At worst you can even catch a virus if you buy a new machine (this has been known to happen). On the other hand, the scare should not be exaggerated. It is certainly a good idea to employ two or three good virus testers / protectors such as McAfee's /pc/pd2/scanv71.zip and /pc/virus/fprot113.zip by Fridrik Skulason (or whatever are the latest version numbers). I have one small additional trick up in my sleeve. Put my dtetimal.exe in your autoexec.bat. If dtetimal gets contaminated, it will loudly inform you of the fact. Dtetimal is part of my /pc/ts/tsutil30.arc (or later) package at uwasa.fi archives. Also use /pc/pd2/chksum.zip to always check at least your io.sys, msdos.sys, and command.com at boot time. You then have a better chance of being alerted if you use these measures. ................................................................... Prof. Timo Salmi (Moderating at anon. ftp site 128.214.12.3) School of Business Studies, University of Vaasa, SF-65101, Finland Internet: ts@chyde.uwasa.fi Funet: gado::salmi Bitnet: salmi@finfun