From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.5-pre1 (2020-06-20) on ip-172-31-74-118.ec2.internal X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.0 required=3.0 tests=BAYES_40 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.5-pre1 Date: 16 Jan 93 05:04:36 GMT From: adobe!NewsWatcher!user@decwrl.dec.com (Chris Page) Subject: Re: Virus Collection for research!!!! Message-ID: List-Id: In article <9301141201.AA24601@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu>, SAHARBAUGH@ROO.FIT.EDU wrote: > > A virus could be sent out to search and destroy Excel 3.0 > and replace it with version 4.0. Work products could be > similarly managed. A virus could be sent out to search > and destroy all old versions of a document and replace them > with the latest. We will need a virus stop at the door > of the archive library of course. This can easily be accomplished with a centralized program which inspects each appropriate computer on the network. There are commercial products available for the Macintosh which do this; no doubt there are similar products for other systems. Using a virus exposes the user to risk (what if the virus accidentally deletes the wrong files on the wrong computers) beyond that of a centralized program, because virii by their nature self-replicate and usually don't carry enough information with them to identify which machines it should travel to and when it should die. Unless all the copies of the virus talk to all other copies (read "lots of network traffic"), they won't know when all machines have been "updated". Certainly, the "biological" behaviors of virii are interesting and imply that some useful application is possible, but I don't think that network management is one of them. Chris Page Adobe Systems, Inc. cpage@mv.us.adobe.com Disclaimer: these are my own opinions and not necessarily those of my employer. This is the Minimalist(tm) .sig, not to be confused with the Null(tm) .sig.