full-disclosure - viruses being sent to this list

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From: todd at hostopia.com (Todd Burroughs)
Subject: viruses being sent to this list

On Wed, 24 Mar 2004, Steve Wray wrote:

> Actually, I am really glad of this thread.
>
> Its evidence that something between me and the list
> is filtering out viruses.
>
> My ISP *swears* that it isn't them.

I'm all for an *open* network, I want raw Internet.  If my ISP starts
"filtering" things for me, I'd probably switch ISPs.  They can offer it to
me, but I want a choice.  They can default it "on", but I want a choice
to turn it off.

I don't use Windows but if I did, I would find a safer mail client and
not click on stupid things.  I like getting viruses, I have to ensure
that our virus scan system works, so it's nice that I get 5 to 10 of
them a day.  If I see one that gets though, I know something's wrong.

One problem with doing any kind of filtering is that, as a common carrier
(i.e., the list owners just running a distribution system), you could
become legally liable for the content because now you are inspecting
it and deciding on whether or not to let it through.  We host a lot of
websites, we do not accept any responsibilty for nor filter content.
If there is a problem, we deal with it.  If we did filter or censor, we
could become legally liable for content.  We pay quite a bit of money to a
well known company to provide virus scanning for our customers.  A major
reason that we pay is that as long as we make sure our system works,
they would likely be liable for mistakes.  I'm sure that our mail system
transfers at least 100,000 "viruses" a day, probably a lot more, but we
are just a common carrier, unless you've signed up for virus scanning.

Gadi made a good point about spam (or the lack of it) on this list and
if there was some kind of filtering going on.  I have a good spam filter
and am good at picking out and deleting spam before looking at it, so I
don't know if the list gets spam or not.  I suspect that spammers don't
want to send to lists like this, as they would have to fake an address
from someone on the list (it is closed) and they would draw excessive
attention to themselves from a community that knows what they are doing.
If I where a spammer, I would definately try to avoid lists like this.

Todd Burroughs
---
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