Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!eecae!cps3xx!usenet From: usenet@cps3xx.UUCP (Usenet file owner) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: Virus protection (was: Re: nVIR info) Message-ID: <720@cps3xx.UUCP> Date: 24 Sep 88 22:20:27 GMT References: <20200005@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu> <3716@charon.unm.edu> <541@uva.UUCP> <6443@pyr.gatech.EDU> Organization: Engineering, Michigan State U., E. Lansing MI Lines: 26 In-reply-to: ccasths@pyr.gatech.EDU's message of 24 Sep 88 19:20:59 GMT In message <6443@pyr.gatech.EDU>, Scott Hinckley (ccasths@pyr.gatech.EDU) suggests: >How about this for Virus protection - > > [ Logging the date of every file change deleted ] > > Now, when you go to do your next back up you tell the backup program to only > back up files that have changed (requires some sort of checksum and date > modified disk from last backup?) > When it finds a changed file it tells you what was changed and when it was > last modified. > You check this against your list before allowing the backup. > > Would it work? Would it take way too much time? Just some thoughts. Unfortunately, a smart virus author could preserve the modification date. So this wouldn't work 100% of the time. The rest of the time it would work, but would be too much work, I think (some programs, like WriteNow for instance, mark files as modified even if they've only been opened). Nice try though. +----------------------------------+------------------------+ | Anton Rang (grad student) | "VMS forever!" | | Michigan State University | rang@cpswh.cps.msu.edu | +----------------------------------+------------------------+