RE: List Security

["Paul Epstein" <epstein@pipeline.com>]

As one of the 2 people to unintentionally spread a virus thru this list
(this message is OK, my system is clean now), after seeing a flurry of
follow-on messages, I feel compelled to, first, apologize, and then note a
few things about the incident.

First of all, I almost always delete such suspicious messages (ALWAYS if
they come from an unknown party), but this time it came from someone I know,
whom I also knew had been trying to reach me lately, which made the message
not seem so suspicious.  Not an excuse--just an example of how when these
things are spread to so many people, there's someone who's bound to have his
or her guard down & virus software not up to date, for whatever reason.  (I
also learned, the hard way, that the weekly virus software updates the
software companies push--instead of just monthly--are worth the effort.)

A second curious point is that I do NOT have this list's address in my
e-mail address book.  The virus message must have come back to the list from
the original message header, or circulated back through someone else's
address book.

A third curious point is that the message did not circulate back to me from
any other lists I'm on--including several that I DO have in my address book.
While it's possible that I killed the bug before it made it that far into my
address book (thanks, David Bernstein for alerting me so I could take
appropriate action), it also makes me wonder whether the other lists I'm on
(powered by Topica & Yahoo) have better built-in virus protection than
GASB's lists, powered by Rutgers.  I've sent a private message to some GASB
folks askingt them to look into the list security issue with Rutgers.  I
surely don't want to scare people away from using this valuable list.  Some
of the recent activity has been quite interesting and informative.  But the
the experience suggests that we all be especially vigilant with anything the
least but suspicious that comes across this list.

Again, I apologize for unintentionally spreading the virus.  I hope no one
else on the list had any serious problems as a result.

--Paul Epstein

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-apmg@raw.rutgers.edu [mailto:owner-apmg@raw.rutgers.edu]On
Behalf Of Dan Corcoran
Sent: Monday, July 30, 2001 10:47 AM
To: apmg@raw.rutgers.edu
Subject: RE: Beware the Epstein Message!!!


An additional security measure on this issue is to remove lists such as this
from one's mailbox.  Having a list such as this in your "Contacts" etc.
folder serves as a great point of infection.

Thanks,
Dan Corcoran

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