GEN: Re: "Accidental" virus procedures on LM_NET

[Peter Milbury <pmilbury@ERICIR.SYR.EDU>]

Dear LM_NET Colleagues,

On Thu, 6 May 1999, someone wrote:
> I am concerned about someone accidentally sending the Happy99 virus to the
> entire list.  How does one accidentally send an attachment? Please advise
> what list guidelines are for this sort of problem.  Will the person be
> asked to unsubscribe from the list? If not, I feel a strong need to
> unsubscribe.  I don't want to put my system at risk because someone
> "Accidentially "  sends me a virus.

Yes, it actually accidentally happens, but that does not mean that they
need to be punished. They are victims themselves and don't know that they
have activated it until they get dozens of angry letters from people who
have received it from them.

What we do to those who forward such items to the group is to limit their
ability to post freely to LM_NET for awhile. That is not punishment, but
protection. We do it until they are able to assure us that their computer
has been cleaned of the virus, and then we wait awhile longer just to be
sure before we restore their posting rights.

There is no way that I know of to keep someone from sending me a virus if
they really want to. But I can keep from clicking on an attachment that I
do not know about that is in their message. One of the best practices when
dealing with e-mail that has attachments, is to never download or click on
them. That is what seems to activate them in your computer.

I hope that the Listserv software folks (whose software runs this LM_NET
list)  are soon able to set up some filters that can spot these trojan
horses when they are sent to the list server. It is a wonder that they
haven't learned to do so. I'll look into it. Otherwise, we would have to
pay someone to approve each and every message sent for posting, and that
would mean that we would have to have someone paid to do so, because that
would be a full time job!

If you have read the earlier messages on how to handle this Happy99.exe,
you will see that it is not a particularly damaging problem. You might
want to use this as a reminder to install good virus protection software
on your computer, and to keep it updated. And also to try and keep
informed about the latest rounds of viruses and virus hoaxes.

Thanks to Dan Robinson for the tip on the free cleaner software:
  Happy99Cleaner 2.0, Windows 95/98/NT Freeware:
  http://www.softseek.com/files/review?UTVI23313sw

Best wishes,

Peter Milbury, Co-owner of LM_NET          pmilbury@ericir.syr.edu
Now With 10,000+ Members       See: http://ericir.syr.edu/lm_net/
................................................................
  See: Peter Milbury's Collection of School Librarian Web Pages
       http://www.cusd.chico.k12.ca.us/~pmilbury/lib.html
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