To Allow or Not Allow E-Mail Attachments?

t0pper311 asks: "I work for a pretty large utility company in the midwest and of course, security is a big concern. We use Trend Micro as a mail gateway to basically scan for virii and strip off most attachments like executables or VB script. Now with the Sobig.E virus on the loose, we need to ask ourselves if we should be blocking ZIP files. We got lucky this time and were not effected, but what about next time? What are other companies doing? If you do block ZIP files, how do you give the people who need to sends files the ability to do so? Do you allow any attachments at all?"

Comments

Here's an idea...

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't let them use email at all. That'll stop any viruses and ou'll have done your job

fp

the 'affective disorder' virus

[solferino]

While you may have been lucky and escaped the Sobig.E virus, unfortunately it appears that you have been infected with the 'affective disorder' virus.

This cunning virus sniffs all your outgoing email and replaces 'affect' with 'effect' and vice versa. So while we know that you wrote "We got lucky this time and were not affected...", this malicious virus made it appear on slashdot as though you are 'affectively disordered'.

Train your userii

[Anonymous Coward]

Your fucking userii should not be clicking on the attachmentii if they don't know what programii is going to run on their computerii.

Re:This is not hard

[SuiteSisterMary]

Instead, train staff not to open .pif files.

In a perfect world, yes. But I've personally said to co-workers 'If you get a message with a subject of ILOVEYOU, do NOT open it!' and they'll say "Ok, I won't. Hey, I've got mail...oooh, the secretary loves me! *click click*'