[Info-vax] "Shanghai Stock Exchange" and OpenVMS

[johnwallace4 at yahoo.co.uk]

On Jan 22, 12:10 pm, "Richard B. Gilbert" <rgilber... at comcast.net>
wrote:
> johnwalla... at yahoo.co.uk wrote:
> > On Jan 22, 2:38 am, "Richard B. Gilbert" <rgilber... at comcast.net>
> > wrote:
> >> koeh... at spock.koehler.athome.net wrote:
> >>> In article <6thdpsFb03n... at mid.individual.net>, billg... at cs.uofs.edu (Bill Gunshannon) writes:
> >>>> How many tmes you going to trot out this same tired story.  Getting hit with
> >>>> a virus is not as much a OS or system problem as it is a user problem.
> >>>    Which is why we get hit with virii on VMS every day?
> >>>    Seriously, heavily trained Windows admins have not been able to protect
> >>>    our Windows systems.  Not if they're plugged in and turned on.
> >> You can safely plug them in and turn them on.  It's when you connect
> >> them to a network that you have to worry about "electronic organisms"
> >> infecting your Windows systems.
>
> > "It's when you connect them to a network that you have to worry"
>
> > Or also when you allow storage devices or files originating from
> > another box to be plugged in (eg via CD or USB stick) to the system
> > we're considering - there are other virus transport mechanisms besides
> > network connections (maybe you meant that but didn't say it as
> > such)...
>
> > So the choice would seem to be permanent isolation, or permanent
> > worry, or keep taking the happy pills. It's obviously unthinkable to
> > change the underlying OS, right?
>
> Storage devices have been a vector for malware in the past, but you
> don't hear much about such incidents any longer!
>
> Once upon at time the mad race to "steal" software fueled the flow of
> virii via floppy disks.  While it's still possible, to propagate a virus
> in this way, I don't think it's anywhere near as common as it used to be!

What's old is new again. Millions of PCs are allegedly affected right
now by a virus which uses Autorun as one of multiple propagation
vectors, ie CDs, DVDs, USB sticks, memory cards, etc are all
propagation vectors. See writeups of conficker aka downadup but note
that not all mention propagation via Autorun. Some may remember back
in 2005 that Sony put out music CDs with a copy-protection rootkit on
them, executed by Autorun. MS have issued incomplete fixes but the
Windows world in general hasn't yet learnt the lesson.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/22/disabling_windows_autorun/
http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA09-020A.html
http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00001586.html