Should Your ISP Scan Your Email For Viruses?

from the many-already-do dept

In the wake of the SoBig fiasco last week, many more ISPs are thinking about scanning all email going to their customers and stopping viruses before they get anywhere. Apparently, a number of large ISPs already do this. Considering that most of the folks who don't realize not to click on virus attachments probably are using a big name ISP, this is probably a good thing. However, some might not like the fact that their ISPs are scanning their email for them - even if it's just to stop viruses. Personally, one of my spam filters (SpamCop) also scans emails for viruses, and alerts me when it finds one - though, it immediately deletes it. Thus, despite getting bombarded with attempts at sending me the virus last week, I didn't have a single one actually reach my mailbox. Of course, it's unclear if any of these ISPs actually alert their customers that they've blocked an email - though, increasingly, people may wonder whether that might be a good thing. When SoBig hit, I got swamped with "we caught a virus" emails which I could have done without.
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  • identicon
    Joe Schmoe, 27 Aug 2003 @ 10:56pm

    My...

    My ISP can / is happy to do this... for a $price$

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Resist Invasive Authorities Attacks ( RIAA ), 28 Aug 2003 @ 8:24am

    Resist Invasive Authorities Attacks ( RIAA )

    WHY ?
    The RIAA is already scanning our computers ... let them do it for free ! ( grin )

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 28 Aug 2003 @ 8:32am

    No Subject Given

    "Considering that most of the folks who don't realize not to click on virus attachments probably are using a big name ISP".

    Hehe, why did I think you were talking about dumb AOL users there?!

    On a serious note, Earthlink already does virus scanning, and AOL are planning it.

    Personally I do it on my mailserver too, at a simplistic level you can just bounce any emails with .scr/.exe/.pif etc. attachments.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      aReader(), 28 Aug 2003 @ 12:57pm

      Re: No Subject Given

      Wait till RIAA gets a subpoena to scan .mp3. I think, what RIAA needs to prove is MP3 can contain virus and is potentially dangerous to users and voila!

      link to this | view in chronology ]


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