Readers Respond: Idiocy Imperils the Web

Readers Respond: Idiocy Imperils the Web
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Readers respond to Jim Rapoza's June 2 commentary, "Idiocy Imperils the Web."Mr. Rapoza,

Thank you for writing this article (Idiocy Imperils the Web). You managed to sum up 5 years of frustration into a light, one page read. Im tempted to hang the article in my cubicle, but I doubt the suits would appreciate it. I guess it will have to be just "our little secret". But, really, thanks... its good to know Im not alone.

Thanks!
Rob Carroll

Resource Library:

Jim:

Im writing to comment on your commentary on the idiocy of opening virus-laden attachments. I agree with what you say, but I also think that well never be able to get rid of idiots. Because of this, we have a very simple policy here thats more effective than anything else at preventing infections. We never are infected with e-mail-borne viruses. How? We simply quarantine all attachments that are executable files. The users still receive the e-mails, but they dont get the attachments. If the user knows that the attachment is safe, we can pull it out of the quarantine, but this almost never happens. How often does the typical user need to receive an executable file as an attachment? Even if it doesnt contain a virus, its probably something that the IT department would prefer not be installed on the users computers. Just to be safe, we also have a strong anti-virus program running as both an Internet gateway, and on the users workstations. But, because of our "no executable attachments" policy, it has little to do. Even though we do get a ton of attachments every day, we have no need for executable attachments. I imagine that most companies are the same, and am surprised that this isnt suggested more often as good policy.

Dave Taliaferro

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