RE: [cobalt-security] NIMBA VIRUS

["Michael Aronoff" <ma@xxxxxxxx>]

>Sean Chester wrote:
>the Nimba virus is infecting my customers.
>they are using windows 95 with outlook express. 
>i have 1 customer that has over 400 .eml files on his desktop. 
>i *thought* because we were running *nix it wouldnt affect anything.

It will not affect your Linux server.  However if you told your clients
that they were safe because you run Linux then you messed up badly.
This virus has 3 different attack methods.  Infecting NT servers is only
one of those.  They can still get it via regular e-mail and even from
the web!  Check out
http://www.sarc.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.nimda.a@xxxxxxx

Whenever my clients ask about virus issues, I tell them that we do not
and cannot do any active scanning of e-mail, that they must have good
anti-virus software and know how to keep it up to date.  If they need
help with a specific virus refer them to http://www.sarc.com (Symantec
Anti-Virus Research Center).

As a hosting provider there are too many legal ramifications to do virus
scanning.  If, as a hosting provider I tell someone that we protect them
from virus attacks, and they get one we can (and will) be held liable
for any damage.  Very dangerous from a business liability standpoint.

Of course it is very different if you are in a corporate environment.

Good luck.

-----------------------
Michael Aronoff
Calabasas, CA