[afnog] RE: W32.Sobig.E at mm

["Mark Tinka" <mtinka at africaonline.co.ug>]

Brian Candler wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 08, 2003 at 05:12:03PM +0300, Mark Tinka wrote:
>> Maybe if a list member decided to withdraw his subscription to the
>> list, on account of the uol.co.ug MX being a virus gateway, how much
>> intellectual benefit has been lost on that account?
> 
> Very little, since they clearly have no clue.

Mmmm, how list-centric!

> 
>> This is all relative - service providers have anti-virus systems that
>> check even outgoing e-mail. Whose benfit is that?
> 
> The service provider's. They having paying customers, and if they
> provide a service to their customers which differentiates their
> service over other ISPs, or which gives their customers a warm fuzzy
> feeling that perhaps they are less likely to infect their business
> partners, then they will keep their customers.    
> 
> By the same token, attaching a footer to every outgoing mail saying
> "This mail has been scanned by XYZ antivirus program" doesn't have
> any technical benefit, in fact it wastes bandwidth, but if it makes
> customers happy then it has a commercial benefit.   
> 
>> If uol.co.ug can't do it in this regard, perhaps they should do it
>> for the other "paying" domains on the server!
> 
> Orthogonal issue. Of course uol.co.ug are entitled to install AV
> software for the benefit of their own users. It doesn't mean that we,
> as free users of the mailing list service they provide on one of
> their machines, are entitled to demand it.   
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Brian.

This thread was mainly intended to address what can be done to e-mail, in
regard to checking viral-status on sending/delivery to the list. Examples,
and possible solutions have been given; it's in as much as uol.co.ug's
interest as the list members' to ensure they are well protected. Whether
uol.co.ug wants to install an anti-virus scanner for it's clients or for the
list, is a matter we can not entirely influence - it rests on them after all
is said and done.

However, list users can look at the bigger picture, and perhaps not expect
the list to check their e-mail, but rather, install anti-virus scanners on
their computers and/or MX gateways. To drill down to having uol.co.ug take
care of this, defeats the purpose of what has been learned through this
thread.

Regards,

Mark Tinka - CCNA
Network Engineer, Africa Online Uganda


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