Virus Woes (but not those woes)
So, the latest virus, MyDoom, has come and gone (well, it going), and yet again, I had more problems with messages from AntiVirus programs telling me I sent mail with a virus that with the actual virus. Of course, I didn’t send the virus, because I’m running Linux, which can’t get this virus. In addition, the “from” addresses don’t exist, and have never been used before. This means that a spammer got infected.
At any rate, it appears that the warning messages from the AV software may be Spam under teh CAN-SPAM act. They have misleading subjects (”Your message had a virus”), and advertising (links to the AV site and the product name), and no opt out policy. The kicker is that, in order to update the AV software so that it can block the virus, the AV companies have to do enough work to know that the virus is faking addresses, so they know the bounce messsage is going to the wrong person! This is what makes it spam, ultimately. Now, all we need to do is convince the FTC to stop the bastards from sending us all that junk…
At least I can’t really get the virus. My sister has a virus/trojen right now that’s likely forwarding spam. She can tell, because every time they connect to the internet, their link gets saturated. Fortunately (?) they have dialup. If they had broadband, they wouldn’t ever know. And, they have up-to-date AV, which says their system is clean. Go figure. Give me Linux all the way.
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