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Lousy E-mail Filters Complicating Outlook Worms

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the cluttering-up-my-inbox dept.

Mar writes "FRISK Software founder Fridrik Skulason has issued an open letter in which he blames other anti-virus companies for much of the Sobig.F network load problems: 'If mail filters send out one message for every copy of Sobig.F received, they are in effect doubling the amount of traffic. This makes them a part of the problem, not a part of the solution.'"

3 of 461 comments (clear)

  1. Re:His two minutes by Juggler · · Score: 5, Informative
    Not true, most worms and viruses have spoofed the From address for quite a long time now.

    Autoreplies have always been problematic at best, which anyone who's experienced the annoyance caused by vacation programs on public mailing lists can attest to. Autoreplies to automatically generated traffic have always been a no-no.

    Viruses and worms are clearly autogenerated traffic.

    Also, although 95% of computer users have never heard of FRISK, Fridrik has been a respected member of the A/V community since it very began and wrote one of the very first virus scanners.

    Disclaimer: I work for FRISK, writing said e-mail filter code. But I can tell you with authority that the decision was taken a long time ago.

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  2. FYI Taco and Mar by Abm0raz · · Score: 5, Informative

    Lousy E-mail Filters Complicating Outlook Worms

    SoBig.F is not an Outlook worm. It is a Windows worm. It does not require Outlook to run. It has it's own built in MTA and grabs email addresses from cached webpages and local text files as well as the Outlook/Express address book.

    -Ab

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    Nothing fails quite like prayer.
  3. Re: Forged From: viruses by frankie · · Score: 4, Informative
    Until recently, no e-mail worms spoofed the email address

    What is your definition of "recently"? Apparently it's about two years.