Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
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From: ewright@convex.com (Edward V. Wright)
Subject: Re: System 7.0, Strike one, two....
Message-ID: <1991May22.180122.19445@convex.com>
Sender: usenet@convex.com (news access account)
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Organization: CONVEX Computer Corporation, Richardson, Tx., USA
References: <5878@goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au> <1991May22.011214.10977@midway.uchicago.edu>
Date: Wed, 22 May 1991 18:01:22 GMT
Lines: 22

In article <1991May22.011214.10977@midway.uchicago.edu> dwal@ellis.uchicago.edu (David Walton) writes:

>BTW, virus problems, in contrast, ARE easily obviated.  It's called
>GateKeeper.  Or Disinfectant.  We've been using GK/GKA in our public
>clusters for some time now, and have had almost no problems with
>viruses.  Using removable media is an innovative solution to the
>problem, but I simply won't buy that it's the only effective way to
>guard against viruses.

I'm not even sure it's a solution.  A hard disk can become infected
from a floppy disk or over a network.  Do removable disks solve either
of these problems?  No.  Do they make an infected disk easier to clean?
Hell, no.  With fixed disks, if you discover a virus infection, you
can have someone go through the lab and eradicate one disk at a time.
With removable disks, you have to ask the students to bring in their
disks, and they're probably not going to be able to do this all at
the same time.  So student A brings in his disk on Monday, student B
brings in his on Tuesday, student C brings in hers on Wednesday, but
in the meantime, student A has become reinfected from contact with
student C...  Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see how this
makes the virus problems easier at all.