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Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 14:08:23 -0500
To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
From: Ken Thompson <ken DOT thompson AT gtri DOT gatech DOT edu>
Subject: RE: Computer Virus
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At 10:49 AM 1/31/2001 -0800, you wrote:
>Off topic, I know.  But what sort of protection are they giving their users
>with this line in the message:
>
> > >These types are not delivered to the final recipients. If you want
> > >to send one of these types, please encode them as ZIP or TAR files.
>
>Stephen Blythe

The real idea is to prevent naive users from executing/installing/whatever 
potentially dangerous attachments by clicking on them blindly. A tar 
archive will not normally execute some dangerous code if you double click 
on it. IMHO, a better solution is to rename such attachments to something 
that will not execute/install/whatever when clicked on and add a cautionary 
message to the recipient. This lets the recipient decide the authenticity 
of the file in question and act accordingly. This is what our mailer 
software does.

                                                 Ken


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Ken Thompson                             GTRI/ELSYS/SEN
(404) 894-7089 (VOICE)              (770)-223-6770 (PAGER)
(404) 894-7080 (FAX)                   ken DOT thompson AT gtri DOT gatech DOT edu
The productivity of a software engineering process is inversely 
proportional to the paperwork it generates and the meetings it requires. -- 
Ken Thompson 


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