Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!dsinc!netnews.upenn.edu!vax1.cc.lehigh.edu!cert.sei.cmu.edu!krvw From: jkp@cs.HUT.FI (Jyrki Kuoppala) Newsgroups: comp.virus Subject: Re: AF/91 and April Foolism in general Message-ID: <0010.9104191405.AA11080@ubu.cert.sei.cmu.edu> Date: 17 Apr 91 22:29:27 GMT Sender: Virus Discussion List Lines: 27 Approved: krvw@sei.cmu.edu [ someone writes lots of babbling about lawsuits and such for an april fools joke ] If people lack knowledge about the things they're reading and in general take everything they read from newspapers as the Truth without checking it first with someone competent enough to know what's it all about, in my opinion they deserve all what they get. You're in much more trouble than some lost time if you blindly believe anything you happen to read in a publication. It seems to me that especially in the computer virus field the lack of knowledge about computer security in general is often exploited by various venturers. Sure, there's nothing inherently wrong with wasting your money spending it on various virus detection programs, populist books and such. Computer viruses in themselves are not a big problem. The big problem is persons with no knowledge of the risks involved and no proper training and/or usage policies using computer systems with nil (or worse, security-by-obscurity ones) operating system and application program access controls, with the programs often written by persons with equal lack of knowlegde. Add to that the lack of source code and then even if the users were competent enough they couldn't find or fix the holes and lacks of controls. //Jyrki