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Re: Viruses



There has been a new round of seemingly bogus virus warnings. BUT now I
wonder: Is it _ever_ _possible_ for a virus to be communicated in e-mail??
Yes, I know that some will say that viruses can only be communicated in an
executable, but reconfirm this for me.

What if the msg contains JAVA or HTTP script????

Can a virus possibly be communicated via a WWW page?

You might well guess that I have just discovered a virus on my system and
can see NO way for it to have been communicated. So don't read this msg!!!!!



Jim Green
JMGreen@sisna.com


Jim:
We recently had a virus infection on PhysLrnR. It was a Word macro-virus.
You are right it takes executable code, but the macros in Word and Excel
will support viruses cross-platform. Only Word or Excel files are involved
and these come as attachments, but it was a nasty mess nonetheless.

Some of the old standby virus checkers are unaware of these viruses. We
found that Norton and Symantec Anti-Virus software does handle this type of
virus and has a web-page montly update to handle on-going virus warfare.

Those with Mac's though beware that the SAM Intercept extension requires
updating via a download from their web page.

It seems to me that with ANY code that executes (Java or HTTP for example)
there is the possibility of virus activity.

Dewey

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dewey I. Dykstra, Jr. Phone: (208)385-3105
Professor of Physics Dept: (208)385-3775
Department of Physics/MCF421/418 Fax: (208)385-4330
Boise State University dykstrad@bsumail.idbsu.edu
1910 University Drive Boise Highlanders
Boise, ID 83725-1570 novice piper

"Physical concepts are the free creations of the human mind and
are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external
world."--A. Einstein in The Evolution of Physics with L. Infeld,
1938.
"Every [person's] world picture is and always remains a construct
of [their] mind and cannot be proved to have any other existence."
--E. Schrodinger in Mind and Matter, 1958.
"Don't mistake your watermelon for the universe." --K. Amdahl in
There Are No Electrons, 1991.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++