[IP] more on Caution suggested during NSF "virus scans"

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: "Jonathan S. Shapiro" <shap@eros-os.org>
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 14:34:28 -0500
To: <dave@farber.net>
Subject: Re: [IP] more on Caution suggested during NSF "virus scans"

On Thu, 2005-01-27 at 14:18 -0500, David Farber wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 27, 2005 at 01:32:40PM -0500, David Farber quoted:
> > The National Science Foundation now has a policy that if you visit
> > their building in Ballston and if you have a laptop with you, you
> > must have it "scanned for viruses" even if you don't plan to open it
> > up.
> 
> Amazing.  Simply amazing.
> 
> What if it's running an operating system for which there are no known
> viruses?  For example, how would they scan my SparcBook running OpenBSD?
> And why?

Or indeed, if the machine is *really* securable, how can they propose
that an unauthorized and untrusted party (the person performing the
check) should be permitted to install new software (i.e. the checker) at
all?

On balance, I have to say that I consider the risk of having an unknown
person tampering with my machine to be much higher than the risk that my
machine is infected. People have been trying to crack my lab for 15
years without success. NSF certainly can't claim that.


shap


------ End of Forwarded Message


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