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Should Your ISP Scan Your Email For Viruses?
from the many-already-do dept
In the wake of the SoBig fiasco last week, many more ISPs are thinking about scanning all email going to their customers and stopping viruses before they get anywhere. Apparently, a number of large ISPs already do this. Considering that most of the folks who don't realize not to click on virus attachments probably are using a big name ISP, this is probably a good thing. However, some might not like the fact that their ISPs are scanning their email for them - even if it's just to stop viruses. Personally, one of my spam filters (SpamCop) also scans emails for viruses, and alerts me when it finds one - though, it immediately deletes it. Thus, despite getting bombarded with attempts at sending me the virus last week, I didn't have a single one actually reach my mailbox. Of course, it's unclear if any of these ISPs actually alert their customers that they've blocked an email - though, increasingly, people may wonder whether that might be a good thing. When SoBig hit, I got swamped with "we caught a virus" emails which I could have done without.
Reader Comments
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My...
My ISP can / is happy to do this... for a $price$
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Resist Invasive Authorities Attacks ( RIAA )
WHY ?
The RIAA is already scanning our computers ... let them do it for free ! ( grin )
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No Subject Given
"Considering that most of the folks who don't realize not to click on virus attachments probably are using a big name ISP".
Hehe, why did I think you were talking about dumb AOL users there?!
On a serious note, Earthlink already does virus scanning, and AOL are planning it.
Personally I do it on my mailserver too, at a simplistic level you can just bounce any emails with .scr/.exe/.pif etc. attachments.
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Re: No Subject Given
Wait till RIAA gets a subpoena to scan .mp3. I think, what RIAA needs to prove is MP3 can contain virus and is potentially dangerous to users and voila!
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