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Pastimes : VIRUS ALERT -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Fridrik Skulason who wrote (35)	10/13/1998 12:43:00 PM
From: Fridrik Skulason	Respond to of 47

Just a minor bit of virus-related trivia.....this forum is a bit lacking in activity :-) We can group currently-known viruses as follows (rough estimate) 32000 DOS viruses 2700 Word viruses 1000 MBR/DBR viruses 300 Excel viruses 100 DOS BAT viruses 100 Windows viruses 10 Access viruses 3 Java viruses 3 Linux viruses 1 AMI Pro virus In addition there are over 1000 viruses for the Macintosh, Atari, Apple II, Archimedes, Amiga etc...

To: Fridrik Skulason who wrote (35)	12/19/1998 10:04:00 PM
From: jbeaul	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 47

I have read, with amusement, this thread regarding whether Word/Excel file can read virus code into active memory and launch it, thus causing it to infect. I think you two are saying the same thing but from different vantage points. Yes, it's impossible to cause infection via an e-mail message but it is possible to cause infection by launching some files (executables and documents containing automatically or triggered macros, e.g., Word or Excel files) attached to an e-mail message. The likelihood of a virus is next to nil but I wouldn't bet my office network on it. My home computer contains my personal book keeping and investment positions. But I still run without any anti-virus software and keep these "critical" files backed up to my tape drive as I update them. As a computer technician, I am often called to cleanse an "infected" computer. In ten years of doing this, I've encountered only three that actually had a virus present. Out of ignorance, most folks proclaim a virus attacked their computer when it does something they don't understand. I do think you are actually more in agreement about this topic than you think. You just haven't described the variables to each others satisfaction. Maybe the above summary can help that. Also, in regards to the higher number of macro virus' as compared to all others is the result of their latency and relatively innocuous (sp?) effect. They tend to lay quiet and do little troublesome things that overtime cause the system to slow down or wastes drive space. As a result the infected continue to create more documents and electronically distribute them without even knowing of their viral content. hope this helps... joe