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A Central Repository for Virus Information?

four12 asks: "I've been doing more work lately with network security and tightening things up. My new employer has been pretty lax over the years with such things and has come to the realization that their luck has to be wearing thin. I have noticed an dissonance of information between the various virus information sites. McAfee will have a 'prolific' worm listed, but Symantec and Trend say nothing about it and vice versa. It makes me wonder first of all, is my anti-virus system catching things as fast as the other systems? Is there a place that I can go that digests the latest threats and information down in to a nice, clean webpage? I already have too many listserv subscriptions and don't want to wade through a dozen webpages trying to correlate what is out there."

9 of 26 comments (clear)

  1. CERT by setzman · · Score: 5, Informative

    They seem to have a lot of the current advisories and stuff here.

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  2. An inflection point for Outlook? by gruntvald · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It seems to me that we are getting close to the inflection point for Outlook, where it's benefits are too adversely affected by it's security record. Following bugtraq, we are now at the point where even plaintext messages can trigger javascript. Absurd.

  3. Don't Rely Exclusivly on Anti-Virus! by zulux · · Score: 3, Informative

    The antivirus vendors can only release their updated file - AFTER the virus has started to spread, the receive a copy and patch and test. This could take *DAYS*.

    Some people think that a properly created worm/virus could spread over the entire available host populations in under 15 min from release.

    More Info Worhal Virus

    Add atachement mangeling, removal, and remove vunerable email client for example; Outlook with with it's own exploits and it's embeded HTML (Explorer) with it's own list of exploits are unacceptable for a networked computing environment.

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    Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.

  4. Windows Update by crow · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Almost all the virus problems are Windows-based, and a large majority of the problems occur after Microsoft has released patches. Hence, any comprehensive security plan should include some method of insuring that all critical security updates are applied throughout the company.

    Beyond that, it's a race between Microsoft patching bugs and the anti-virus companies detecting the exploits.

  5. isnt that wat usenet and kazza are? by Unknown+Poltroon · · Score: 2, Funny

    I mean, thats where i get all my viri from.

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  6. US Dept of Energy website by Kiaser+Zohsay · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://www.ciac.org/ciac/

    Pretty comprehensive across platforms, OSs, viruses, hoaxes, buffer overflows...

    Best of all, they're not trying to sell you something.

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    I am not your blowing wind, I am the lightning.
  7. IntelliShield by ModernCelt · · Score: 2, Informative
    Is there a place that I can go that digests the latest threats and information down in to a nice, clean webpage?

    TruSecure IntelliShield is one such service, but it is not free. It pulls together information about a vulnerability from various vendors, mailing lists, and such, and puts it all under one issue. It also has alerts and a shared task list for managing your organization's response to a vulnerability. The alerts can be useful given the fast-spreading nature of recent worms. The task list is less useful since organizations large enough to benefit from it probably have something similar internally.

    I have no affiliation with TruSecure, yadda yadda yadda, I just previewed their service for a former employer.

  8. Ethically ironic isn't it: by eyepeepackets · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Ethically ironic isn't it:

    - MS's poorly designed and implemented product is the primary cause we have a virus problem (80,000 + viruses at last count);

    - first thing I see when I log onto /. are banner ads for MS product!

    Doh, I forgot: Raking in cash is better than taking the high ground and considering one'
    s actions and behavior in the context of ethical social behavior.

    Guess ./ forgot too, eh?

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    Everything in the Universe sucks: It's the law!
  9. Re:Take the weight off... by Ed+Almos · · Score: 2, Informative

    Too right

    A friend of mine used Messagelabs during his last job in the UK and he reckons that they are the best thing out there. Over eighteen months he had ZERO virus hits on a sixty-user site and this was during the Code Red / Nimda boom times.

    Speak to Messagelabs

    Ed Almos

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    The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. - Tacitus, 56-120 A.D.