Re: [LUG] Outlook in Cambridge

[Simon Waters <Simon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Ian P. Christian" wrote:
> Matthew Browning wrote:
> > Spoiler:  Cambridge University college bans the use of MS
> > Outlook as they are fed up of tidying up after it.
>
> Just though I would mention, we have about 500 computers (and countless
> users), all running outlook. Our total Klez infections to date, 0.
>
> The virus in theory is stopped by our primary mail server, if it's not
> stopped there, it should be stopped at the exchange server, and if it's
> not stopped there, it would be stopped by the client virus scanner.

My guess is the average University college can't stop people
picking up mail from external servers and probably wouldn't want
to, so server defences are irrelevant to initial infection.

What about other viruses in Outlook? Most big sites get hit
early, before new viruses are in the filters. Even if they get
caught, support desks often get calls from concerned users with
viruses in my experience. It was more of a problem with viruses
that infected other documents, but I don't suppose Windows users
have changed that much.

I think Desktop scanners are the only meaningful defence, others
can help, but you can never filter malicious code effectively
till it is just about to be run.

Academic/Research desktops tend to be a bit more diverse than
corporate desktops in terms of number and type of applications,
and approval mechanisms for applications aren't going to be in
place.

So I suspect it is probably far simpler to blacklist bad
applications than try and lock everything down to the point
where it is safe to run Outlook.

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