Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!hao!oddjob!gargoyle!ihnp4!alberta!auvax!rwa
From: rwa@auvax.UUCP (Ross Alexander)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: THIS VIRUS IS A CRISIS!
Message-ID: <483@auvax.UUCP>
Date: 4 Jan 88 14:43:25 GMT
References: <9659@udenva.cair.du.edu>
Organization: Athabasca U., Alberta, Canada
Lines: 50
Summary: Don't Panic

In article <9659@udenva.cair.du.edu>, Paul Brody writes:
> At this time I would like to make a remark about the current
> dangerous virus situation.
...
> CRISIS CRISIS CRISIS CRISIS CRISIS CRISIS
...
> to organize this effort and to PUNISH to the MAXIMUM EXTENT OF THE LAW
> anyone making these viruses. Additionally Commodore should mount a PR
> effort to assure potential customers and dealers that the AMIGA is SAFE.

Oh, my goodness. To quote Chicken Little,

	"The sky is falling, the sky is falling!!"

All you need is a virus scrubber.  CATS ought to be able to build one
with their eyes shut.  In the Un*x world, these sorts of things have
been seen before, and dealt with.  I'm sure you clever Amigans can
do it as well as anyone else.

In the mean time, put your shirt back on and do a little constructive
reasoning.  This thing can only be spread by receiving and booting an
infected flop, right?  So DON'T BOOT ANY FOREIGN FLOPS; copy them
onto known clean flops, the boot sector isn't copied in a
file-system-oriented copy (as opposed to a track-oriented copy).  
Consider this the software equivalent of condoms ;-).

Yes, it is too bad that shareware/freeware/what-have-you-ware is not
entirely trustable any more.  If it's too much of a risk, do
without.  Or write it yourself.  But _please_, don't panic and then
start making demands which will require a police state to enforce.

BTW, don't you think that your statement 'PR effort to ... is safe.'
is the height of hypocrisy and the kind of disinformation that I, at
least, normally associate with government security organizations
(CSIS, NSA and the KGB spring unbidden to mind... :-) ?  Not to mention
that this would be totally counterproductive if, as you otherwise
seem to be arguing, you want the Amy community to tighten up on
security.  I mean, either the amy is safe and you don't need to
worry about virii, or it isn't and you do need to worry.  PR is not
the fix - PR is the _problem_, in this case.

mutter grumble panicy users grumble hysteria mutter ....

--
Ross Alexander,
Sr Systems Programmer & Bottlewasher @ Athabasca University
alberta!auvax!rwa

PS: flames will be sent to Facilities, it's -35 and we need the heat.
rwa