Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!tektronix!reed!kamath
From: kamath@reed.UUCP (Sean Kamath)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: anti-virus assurance
Message-ID: <8058@reed.UUCP>
Date: 13 Jan 88 20:27:04 GMT
References: <8801120436.aa15889@SMOKE.BRL.ARPA>
Reply-To: kamath@reed.UUCP (Sean Kamath)
Organization: Reed College, Portland OR
Lines: 55

In article <8801120436.aa15889@SMOKE.BRL.ARPA> AWCTTYPA@UIAMVS.BITNET ("David A. Lyons") writes:
>
>There is very little assurance of anything.  I can give you my assurance that
>my software does not contain any viruses, etc., when it leaves my possession.
>But what if somebody fiddles with it before uploading it someplace?  It's up
>to users to be very careful if they are not sure of the source.

Let the buyer (or hacker?) beware!

>If you are paranoid/careful, you will test newly-downloaded software on a
>scratch disk, with no other disks online & with any hard drives turned OFF.
>When finished testing the new software, you will do a power-down reboot of
>the system.

This is the *only* way to go in the IBM world!  And not a bad idea *at all*
for us.

>This sort of "being careful" could be a real pain for battery-backed RAMdisk
>users.

Another reason why people really ought to use hard disks with intellegent
disk caching! :-)

>Users with the appropriate skills & plenty of time to waste can examine the
>program for suspicious looking things.  The trouble is that anybody clever
>and deranged enough to put nastiness into a piece of software is NOT going to
>be stupid enough to make it obvious.

However, the majority of "viruses" are undetectable, by there vary nature.
Most of the "reformatting hard disk, sucker!" ones are not very well hidden
at all, and thus it's a good idea to scan the disk file with a disk editor
to look for such messages. . .

>CompuServe--There is a 1 or 2 day delay on CompuServe (or in the APPLE forums,
>at least) between when someone uploads something & when it becomes available
>for downloading.  I *hope* that one of the Sysops is taking that time to try
>out the program look for nasty stuff. -- I will ask.

Many realiable BBS's do indeed do just that, but some cannot, for it would
mean going offline for every test.

>--David A. Lyons  a.k.a.  DAL Systems
>  PO Box 287 | North Liberty, IA 52317
>  BITNET: AWCTTYPA@UIAMVS
>  CI$: 72177,3233

Hay, Dave;s a great guy, went to highschool with him, and worked with him
after I graduated.  Buy his stuff!  He's a good tech support person also!

Sean Kamath
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