🚀 go-pugleaf

  When I submitted my contribution on Signature Programs (Issue 256) I
wouldn't have been surprised to be criticized for something I wrote,
but I hardly expected to be criticized for something I *didn't* write!
According to William Murray (#257),
>                             The insistence of Mr. Radai et. al. that,
>since it is possible to detect and bypass any control, that all is
>futile does not stand up.  ....
>It is time to stop condemning the useful out of hand.  Those who insist
>upon doing so are contributing to the problem rather than the solution.

  Just where, Mr. Murray, did you find in anything which I wrote, that
I "insist" that "all is futile" or that I "condemn the useful"???  I
never said anything remotely resembling these things.  The point I was
making was: Security of the algorithm is not enough; what's important
is the security of the implementing program.  Where's the futility in
that?
  Well, maybe Mr. Murray thinks that these conclusions are somehow
implied by the position that it's possible to detect and bypass any
control.  (Actually, I never said even *that*, but for sake of argu-
ment, let's suppose that I did.)  Just how is that supposed to imply
that all is futile??  My actual opinion is quite the opposite: it's
that even if we can't create a perfect checksum or other anti-viral
program, we should make an effort to think of all possible holes in
the system, and the more we block, the better.  There is absolutely no
implication of futility or condemnation of the useful either here or
in my original posting.  In the future, Mr. Murray, please try to read
more carefully before attributing positions to others.

  There were also some peculiar claims in the paragraph following Mr.
Murray's opening line "I suspect that Y. Radai misses the point of Bob
Bosen's posting."  However, I'll leave it to Bob himself to decide
which of us missed the point of his posting, Mr. Murray or me ....

                                     Y. Radai
                                     Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem, Israel
                                     RADAI1@HBUNOS.BITNET

  P.S.  I have not been receiving Virus-L regularly for the last cou-
ple of months.  If there have been more recent (and hopefully more re-
levant!) replies to my posting which call for an answer from me,
please be patient.