[NHCOLL-L:548] RE: Virus warning about e-mail to this group

[Dennis Paulson]

Bobbie Faul-Zeitler wrote:

>The other option is to eliminate attachments altogether -- less attractive,
>but less costly than the time and repair expense if a virus leaks through
>and attacks your network (spoken from unfortunate experience).
>
>Please let us know what you think the best practice would be for the future.

I'll weigh in against eliminating attachments altogether.  It is very
convenient to have the option to receive text and tables with their
original formatting as stand-alone files, as well as graphics that can be
sent no other way.  Probably not too many graphics will be sent on NHCOLL,
but why not? - a digital image of a particular specimen or specimen
container or collection floor plan would be quite appropriate - and there
will always be text-based documents that can best be shared with a group of
people in this way.

I've been connected to the internet for about 6 years now, with a huge
volume of incoming messages, personal and from listserves, and I haven't
yet received a virus (and didn't on this occasion - perhaps another good
reason to use a Macintosh. ;-)  I don't know whether attempts to corrupt
systems will increase in the future, but for now, I'm happy to have things
continue as they are.  I agree completely with Bobbie that anyone
forwarding an attachment has the responsibility to make sure it's clean.
Not only that, but anything the sender can do to send the attachment as a
file readable by all computers would be welcomed!

Dennis Paulson, Director                           phone 253-879-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History                 fax 253-879-3352
University of Puget Sound                       e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416
http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/museum.html