From: Peter Marshall (petermarshall@cix.co.uk)
Date: 04/05/00-02:51:39 PM Z
> Gord, get the hook, would ya? This stuff is no more on-topic than the
> Mac vs. PC stuff of yesterday. Especially, when it is nonsense like
> this:
>
> "Viruses will eventually be written for Java, or ones that use your
> Browser, or an e-mail script that is non-platform specific... As the
> web becomes the common denominator instead of OS's, viruses will more
> and more use the web as the their form of transmission, infection, and
> propagation..."
>
> This individual knows NOTHING about JAVA, etc. "e-mail scripts"? "The
> web becomes the common denominator instead of OS?!!!??" C'mon!!
> You're just worrying people needlessly.
>
> Maybe you think you can get by with throwing this kind of jargon around
> in a photography forum, but REALLY, you just look foolish to anyone
> with even a modicum of system understanding.
>
Unfortunately this kind of thing is already with us, even if some of the
details differ - here is a part of a message I received yesterday as an
administrator for a very minor part of our higher education network here,
partly as a comment on a widely publicised (but possibly false?) virus
alert from US government sources on 1 April:
----------
Last month, CERT-CC published an incident note concerning a "new" mode
of attack against Windows machines. This involved searching the Internet
for machines which "share" their disks, writable, to the whole world. This
is not a default setting, but it is one which may be tempting to users who
like the convenience of sharing files, but haven't worked out the full
implications. When the attack program finds such a share, it copies
itself to it, in a location where it will be run next time the system
re-boots. The cycle then repeats. For those with long memories, the
resulting propagation is very like the Internet worm which started the
whole CERT business up over ten years ago.
----------
You can find out more about the April 1 message, among other places, on
http://www.sans.org/newlook/alerts/911worm.htm.
I wouldn't get alarmed, but if you are using Windows networking and also
connecting to the Internet you would be advised to check the settings of
any 'shares' on your systems. Of course the 'infection' isn't
cross-platform, but it is using web-based transmission protocols (TCP/UDP)
which are cross platform.
Mac-users are still probably pretty safe in that there are few hackers who
would ever risk being seen using a Mac.
Peter Marshall
Photography guide at About.com http://photography.about.com/
email: photography.guide@about.com
_________________________________________________________________
London's Industrial Heritage: http://www.cix.co.uk/~petermarshall/
The Buildings of London etc: http://www.spelthorne.ac.uk/pm/default.htm
Also on Fixing Shadows: http://www.people.virginia.edu/~ds8s
and elsewhere......
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