Xref: utzoo comp.misc:2172 comp.sys.ibm.pc:13762
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!gatech!uflorida!beach.cis.ufl.edu!esj
From: esj@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Eric S. Johnson)
Newsgroups: comp.misc,comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Commercial liability for distributing a virus
Message-ID: <13651@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU>
Date: 27 Mar 88 04:17:21 GMT
References: <500@xios.XIOS.UUCP> <4811@ecsvax.UUCP> <622@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> <4123@chinet.UUCP>
Sender: news@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU
Reply-To: esj@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Eric S. Johnson)
Organization: UF CIS Department
Lines: 20


Many folks have asked: "what to do about viruses?". Well, there is a 
simple solution, and it becomes more practical every day. 

Dont use systems without hardware memory access/device protection.
(supported by the OS of course) The key to all the "popular" viruses
seems to be that any program running has full control of the entire
machine. Bad stuff here.  Im kinda surprised that this kind of abuse
did not show up earlier.

Hardware/OS protection is (and never will be) the perfect solution, 
but it will stop the simple virus. And none of the viruses I have seen
have been anything more then simple hacks taking advantage of lame
hardware/software problems.


--
In Real Life:           Internet: esj@beach.cis.ufl.edu
Eric S. Johnson II      UUCP: ...{codas|gatech}!uflorida!beach.cis.ufl.edu!esj
University of Florida         Think of it as entropy in action :-)