Clueless anti-virus products/vendors (was Re: Sober)

Sun Dec 4 20:37:32 UTC 2005

On Sun, Dec 04, 2005 at 09:58:20AM -0500, Todd Vierling wrote:
> If it is on by default, it is a bug, and not operator error.

(In the case of the Barracuda) there are at least two such switches:
one for spam, one for viruses.  Note that when both are set to "off" that
the box still occasionally emits such messages under as-yet-undetermined
circumstances.  I attempted to persuade one of Barracuda's engineers,
months ago, that there was absolutely no valid reason for including a
"feature" whose only purpose was abuse redirection.  Incredibly, I was
told "the customers want this feature", and that it would not be removed.

And thus we now have blacklist entries such as:

	barracuda1.aus.texas.net
	barracuda.yale-wrexham.ac.uk
	barracuda.morro-bay.ca.us
	barracuda.ci.mtnview.ca.us
	barracuda.elbert.k12.ga.us
	barracuda.fort-dodge.k12.ia.us
	barracuda.ci.garner.nc.us
	barracuda.ship.k12.pa.us

and many, many more.

Perhaps Barracuda should simply rename those switches as "spam
random individuals" and/or "get yourself blacklisted", as those
are the only two things likely to result from turning them on.

> (Virus "warnings" to forged addresses are UBE, plain and simple.)

When sent in bulk (as they inevitably are), absolutely.  There's
no exception in the canonical definition of spam (which _is_ "UBE")
for "messages sent by broken anti-virus software", nor should there be.

---Rsk