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Message |
    
vermontgolfer
Citizen
Username: Vermontgolfer
Post Number: 239
Registered: 12-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 10, 2003 - 7:44 pm: |     |
Over the past several weeks, I have received numerous emails from a company called Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLC, claiming that they 'intercepted' an email I attemped to send to one of their employees. Here's my confusion, I know no one who works at this company, though when I get the emails it specifically identifies an email address. I run Norton Anti Virus on my computer, which is programmed to go get the most recent virus definitions. I also run the anti virus software at least once a week and it never detects a virus. I have also received several virus attempts via an email but the NAV software has always caught it and stopped it from infecting the machine. I'm confused and rather than trying to find out from Optimum or Earthlink, both of whom I use, I thought someone here might have some thoughts.
Thanks in advance. |
lseltzer
Citizen
Username: Lseltzer
Post Number: 1984
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 10, 2003 - 8:15 pm: | |
If they received an e-mail apparantly from you it doesn't mean you sent it. The message is probably sent by a virus/worm on someone else's machine, someone who has your address somewhere on their hard disk. |
vermontgolfer
Citizen
Username: Vermontgolfer
Post Number: 240
Registered: 12-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 10, 2003 - 8:59 pm: | |
lseltzer,
That makes me feel a bit better, because now I'm getting returned mail from other addresses and it says it's 'undeliverable mail', except each time I get one of these, NAV detects a virus, which I then quarantine and then delete.
Thanks for the info. |
Tom Reingold the prissy-pants
Citizen
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 1389
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, December 11, 2003 - 12:07 pm: | |
This stuff ricochets for a while. It takes about two weeks to slow to a small trickle. I still get the returned mail notices, but not as often. Those returned mail notices contain viruses, too! They're part of the plan.
It amazes me to see how much clever energy goes into evil intentions.
Tom Reingold
There is nothing
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lseltzer
Citizen
Username: Lseltzer
Post Number: 1986
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, December 11, 2003 - 2:27 pm: | |
The problem, at the heart of many Internet problems today including almost all spam, is that the people who designed Internet e-mail gave no considerations to security at all. The base protocol (SMTP, simple mail transfer protocol), is not well-suited to the task. One of the hot topics in messaging/security discussions is how SMTP can be effectively upgraded/replaced. I think SMTP is too entrenched to be substantially changed. You'd have to get the whole world to change mail software in a relatively short period of time. |
Tom Reingold the prissy-pants
Citizen
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 1391
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, December 11, 2003 - 2:35 pm: | |
I think a little "vision" is called for. For one thing, I think we will eventually have a breakthrough or a series of breakthroughs. I don't know what they will be, but the internet geniuses have been able to adapt and add to existing technology for a long time, and in many cases, they did what others thought was impossible.
Secondly, I think we will need a social change. In general, most people agree that it is unacceptable to walk through someone's front door uninvited. The virus and spam people are doing the equivalent, and a lot of their license comes from the fact that the technology is so new that accepted and unaccepted behavior haven't been sorted out yet. In time, this may change.
But I'll admit one problem is that the few bad guys affect the rest of us pretty heavily. Technology makes that possible in a big way, so this is a really big problem: very few bad deeds ruins things for huge numbers of people.
What newsgroups/mailing lists/web sites are you speaking of that discuss messaging? (Not that I have time for yet another forum.) I'm on the SAGE and postfix mailing lists already.
Tom Reingold
There is nothing
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vermontgolfer
Citizen
Username: Vermontgolfer
Post Number: 243
Registered: 12-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, December 11, 2003 - 2:36 pm: | |
Tom/lseltzer,
thanks for both of your comments, it certainly now makes a lot of sense. For instance, today alone I received 5 Klez virus attempts in returned mail messages, fortunately my NAV caught each and every one, but it sure is a pain in the you know what! |
Tom Reingold the prissy-pants
Citizen
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 1393
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, December 11, 2003 - 2:42 pm: | |
Most mailers have a filtering option. You might be able to filter this incoming mail, by some rule, say the subject line or the sender. Have those messages filtered into a folder other than your inbox. Then you can check it less frequently than your inbox. You might get some legitimate mail in that folder, which is why I don't recommend that you have the filter deleted it automatically.
I really don't see how anyone can live without email filtering if they get more than 10 messages a day. I receive a few hundred a day, since I'm on a bunch of mailing lists, so I have some folders I only check every few weeks. I have a "spam" folder for suspected spam, and there are a few "false positives" which are usually my friends sending me silly humorous attachments.
Tom Reingold
There is nothing
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vermontgolfer
Citizen
Username: Vermontgolfer
Post Number: 244
Registered: 12-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, December 11, 2003 - 5:11 pm: | |
Tom,
Thanks, I know they exist, but frankly not feeling smart enough to spend the time to figure it out, since I'm afraid I'll put something there that I need to see and if I don't go there regularly, I'll miss it. Just guess I need to make sure the anti-virus software stays current. Thanks for all your input. |
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