cogdogblog

Not So Great Moments in Software Design #945,562

It is happening again. If you are like me, you have spent a chunk of time every few hours recently deleting piles of messages from email virus protection systems elsewhere, all claiming that I sent them infected emails (the latest viral attachment crud, W32.Novarg.A@mm, yum what a name).

Nothing has changed since September 9, when I penned Stupid Practice in Email Virus Protection Systems: Stop Spamming the Innocent.

Here is the crux. All the Norton's, Symantics, etc deployed at your office or school's system spends a lot of time sending out reject email messages to people who did not really send, or their computer did not send these messages, It is time to stop writing such lazy, stupid software, that does not recognize that the vast majority of infected email has "spoofed" email headers. No they keep spitting out reject message, again, and again, the same thing. The notification is going to the wrong people- they keep buggin the innocent rather than the technical folks that can actually address the situation.

How am I so sure I am not the cause? It is spelled I-80I-USE-AMAC.

In the meantime, rip out you calculators and give a big fat ROI for how much time/productivity is lost across the system on deleting these "warning" messages. How about all the poor people getting these messages that have no clue? What about all the people dealing with answering questions at the computer helpdesks?

Wake up, Dr. Norton- Stop Spamming the Innocent Stop Spamming the Innocent Stop Spamming the Innocent Stop Spamming the Innocent Stop Spamming the Innocent