[R-390] OT:Virus/malware/port scans and other nasties. was Re: (no subject)

[Randy and Sherry Guttery]

I'm making this as a general reply - as I don't want anyone 
to feel I'm "preaching" at them as I really intend to 
"preach" at everyone...

A comment was made about many list servers being set up to 
"test" links looking for malware, etc.  Actually - I'm not 
aware of any *effective* way to do that - so the path some 
list administrators take is to just "block" certain content 
that "might" contain nasties.  The result is that links are 
often rejected (or stripped)  - making it a royal PITA to 
share things - and that's still no guarantee that things 
won't "slip through".

The best defense is on *your* machine (i.e. everyone's 
machines) - something that will stop such malware/hacks  in 
it's tracks.  This machine is on the internet 24/7; has 
Apache server running - backing up and monitoring our main 
server (which is off site). This is also my main development 
machine - extremely critical - and so is used for live 
testing, etc. If it goes down - I'm out of business - so I 
*have* to have a solution I can depend on.  I have a 
solution that has been satisfactory for more than seven 
years. It's far from perfect (it has "issues") but in that 
seven years - it has never allowed anything "nasty" to get 
through (unlike the product I was using previously).  As 
recent as this morning - the scan report showed it caught a 
new (apparently really nasty) item - and nipped it in the 
bud. (I'll be glad to discuss that solution privately if 
anyone is interested - but my purpose here is not to 
advocate that specific solution).

Point being - we are each responsible for our machine's 
health - anyone that depends on their or other's ISPs, list 
servers, web servers, etc. to that job for them - is going 
to get burnt eventually - like safe sex  - there are ways to 
prevent issues - and as "abstinence" is not an option most 
of us will choose - not taking proper precautions goes past 
foolish - to irresponsible - as one winds up "passing 
nasties" along...

just my .02 (climbing down from soapbox)...

-- 
randy guttery

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