Re: Worldwide Web Trojan Horse?

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#386

From: Alan J Flavell
Date: Mon, 19 Jun 1995 00:00

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In article <AC079DA5966895A87@cara.demon.co.uk>
peter@cara.demon.co.uk (Peter Ceresole) writes:

>Couldn't it be a postscript file? I seem to remember that postscript files
>*can* do evil things when run.

That's not because it's postscript, but because postscript is an
executable program.

Any executable program that's retrieved over the net is a risk.

But these risks are not specific to files retrieved by WWW.
In that sense, there is no WWW virus.  The WWW can act as a
vehicle for other viruses: so can FTP, email, diskette, you name
it.  So assess it in that light.  Shutting the door on WWW will not
protect you, if you have not assessed your other risks.

p.s one of the more effective recent viruses has been a "mind" virus.
Large numbers of people became convinced that there was a problem,
and went to great trouble to alert their friends to this "problem",
when in fact the purported problem was fundamentally impossible.
Let's not start another one of those in WWW land.

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From: FLAVELL@cernvm.cern.ch (Alan J Flavell)
Subject: Re: Worldwide Web Trojan Horse?
Date: 1995/06/19
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