Antivirus

[Bart Silverstrim]

Ed Greshko wrote:
> Bart Silverstrim wrote:
>> Ed Greshko wrote:
>>> Jonathan Dlouhy wrote:
>>>> Ed, have you ever run across a virus? In fact I'd be interested to hear 
>>>> if anyone has ever had a virus in Linux. I've run Linux for about 15 
>>>> years and can't say I've ever had a virus. I've got a Mac with OS X and 
>>>> have never had a virus with it either. Windows? Completely different 
>>>> story...
>>> I have never run across a virus whose target was Linux.  I have gotten 
>>> emails containing virus whose targets were windows and, like I said, my 
>>> anti-virus caught those and killed them.  Had I not been running an 
>>> anti-virus I could have passed it on in the attachment and been part of the 
>>> problem...not the solution.
>> Can you describe what these virus emails were that you'd have wanted to 
>> forward them to someone you knew?
> 
> Sure....
> 
> I was working as an independent consultant for a large multi-national 
> company based in the UK.  One of their contacts was based in Mumbai and they 
> sent an Excel Spreadsheet that contained a virus.
> 
> Since I run Linux and use OpenOffice I would not have seen and would not 
> have cared about their infected attachement in my environment.  Yet, 
> normally I would have simply passed the attachment on  to others.
> 
> Now, since my anti-virus was able to detect and eliminate the virus I did 
> not pass it on.

Legit case there, definitely.

Although does OO.o not disable macros if you altered the spreadsheet 
before re-sending it for compatibility reasons?

>> All the ones I had run across were from suspicious senders, with 
>> attachments that had suspect names to them (.jpg.exe?), and the text 
>> with them were just generic and ill-spelled and out of character for the 
>> sender, if the sender was even a (spoofed) name I knew.
> 
> One should never assume that their interactions are the same as every ones 
> else's.

I didn't assume it or I wouldn't have asked you about your situation. I 
also interact with a number of others in technology and we tended to 
have similar experiences.

Hence, why I asked for your case for clarification.

>> Just curious what you were seeing that you'd have passed it on if not 
>> for your AV.
> 
> Have I helped you to understand?

I just said above that it was a legit case you're citing...should we 
start creating a shorthand for tone so as to keep from misinterpretation 
of intentions, or should we just start flaming each other now?