Re: :zz: Ooops, that was meant to be private | Virus issue

[Andrew Pam <xanni@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, Mar 23, 1999 at 11:50:30AM -0800, Ted Nelson wrote:
> Bad things could happen if bad folks wanted them to--
>  and remember, thousands of people ARE creating
>  computer viruses.

Luckily this seems to have decreased significantly over the last couple
of years (AFAIK).

> Virusmakers seem not to have noticed the Open Source
>  world yet, as a possible delivery vector for their viruses. 
>  No doubt they will.

Not at all true.  Trojans have been attempted recently, and were
discovered within a day or two.  The Open Source world is a very
ineffective way to attempt to propagate viruses and trojans, since anyone
can find the virus by examination and generally will in short order.

> And while ZigZag is not really Open Source-- meaning
>  freebie public domain-- we're as vulnerable as anybody.

Yep.  Which is to say, not very vulnerable.

>  And just think-- I' trusting a lot of folks I never met!

It's a good feeling when that trust is repaid, isn't it!

> Those are my concerns.  I'm sure that on reflection
>  you will share them.

I accept the validity of your concerns, but I believe you seriously
overestimate the risk.

> This is not a problem I had thought about before.
>  Fortunately Perl is easier to check out than other code--
>  er, isn't it?

To the extent that it's easier to read than other programming languages,
yes.  Which of course is relative and probably somewhat subjective.

Cheers,
	Andrew
-- 
mailto:xanni@xxxxxxxxxx                         Andrew Pam
http://www.xanadu.com.au/                       Technical VP, Xanadu
http://www.glasswings.com.au/                   Technical Editor, Glass Wings
http://www.sericyb.com.au/sc/                   Manager, Serious Cybernetics
P.O. Box 26, East Melbourne VIC 8002 Australia  Phone +61 3 96511511