On Tue, 13 Jun 2000, John Faithfull wrote:
> Obviously, if you know what you're doing, there are ways of safely
> dealing with Word documents, but people are still often caught out.
> Potentially a mail list is a very effective way of spreading these
> things around.
>
> Or am I just being paranoid?
No, you are not being paranoid, John. Museum-L, and a number of other
professional lists suffered recently by means of a posting which
unwittingly included a virus script. It wasn't even in a normal attachment.
Fortunately, I haven't tended to get infected with these things, largely
because I am using a rather antiquated version of Pine as e-mail
software, but others have sufffered considerable annoyance, at best.
The main problem I have with attachments to discussion list postings is
their size. Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and the like can quickly
bloat to a size where they can clog networks very effectively, especially
where multiple copies are received by one institution. There are lots of
better ways of communicating such material.
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Ian O. Morrison, Scottish Museums Documentation Officer
http://homestead.deja.com/user.ian_o_morrison/index.html
Hostes alienigeni me abduxerunt
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