Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mit-eddie!ll-xn!ames!pasteur!ucbcad!ucbvax!UIAMVS.BITNET!AWCTTYPA
From: AWCTTYPA@UIAMVS.BITNET ("David A. Lyons")
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: anti-virus assurance
Message-ID: <8801120436.aa15889@SMOKE.BRL.ARPA>
Date: 12 Jan 88 10:09:00 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The ARPA Internet
Lines: 36
X-Unparsable-Date: Tuesday 12 Jan 88 3:39 AM CT



>Date:         Tue, 12 Jan 88 02:50:00 EST
>From:         TMPLee@DOCKMASTER.arpa
>Subject:      infected programs

>can someone tell us what kind of assurance there is that
>programs contributed to, and downloaded from Apple-2L and Compuserve
>etc.  do not contain viruses?

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.

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

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.

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.

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