Re: VIRUS Alert for the LIST

Again, this boils down to how you define a virus.  If some shareware 
decides to delete everything in QSYS is that a virus?





david@midrange.com on 12/27/99 11:21:37 AM
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Subject:        Re: VIRUS Alert for the LIST

At 09:20 AM 12/27/99 , you wrote:
>The 400 is most definitely vulnerable to a virus.

While this is true .. the AS/400 is technically vulnerable to a virus ... I 
don't think it's very realistically vulnerable.

Consider:
1. Most virus authors are interested in creating massive disruption in the 
computing industry ... with the limited number of AS/400's on the market 
they just aren't a target.
2. A virus author would need an AS/400 to write the virus on ... 
considering the cost of a system, just to be a virus test bed, it's pretty 
impractical.
3. How many people in the world know enough about the AS/400 to write an 
effective virus?  I really don't think you can write an effective virus in 
RPG ... so in depth knowledge of C and/or MI would be required.  I'll bet a 
majority of the people capable of doing such a feat are on this list :)
4. Most viruses exploit holes in the OS to do their damage ... how many 
holes does OS/400 have?

david

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