"Cisco Release Of Goner Worm Raises Eyebrows" (Newsbytes)

Sat Dec 15 02:30:47 UTC 2001

On Fri, 14 Dec 2001, ... wrote:
> I can't imagine any legitimate reason for someone to send a file
> attachment to EVERY single nanog ml member. A URL pointer to a file would
> be far more appropriate.

RFC822 mail is more survivable than many other communication methods,
such as telephone, web or ftp.  One of the academics may be able to
tell us why (or if) that is true. A few times a decade, distributing
patches via e-mail has been an important method to reach system and
network operators during network disruptions.  RFC822 mail was used
during the RTM worm attack, the BIND root change crash, and probably
a few other times to get patches out when connectivity was iffy.