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From: ficc!peter@uunet.uu.net
Newsgroups: comp.virus
Subject: Why not change OS?
Message-ID: <0009.8910021145.AA27888@ge.sei.cmu.edu>
Date: 2 Oct 89 14:13:21 GMT
Sender: Virus Discussion List 
Lines: 22
Approved: krvw@sei.cmu.edu

Rather than go through all this trouble to keep viruses out of Macs
and IBM-PCs, why not abandon the unprotected operating systems
wherever possible and switch to UNIX? If you need to run DOS or MacOS
software, there are ways of running it under UNIX in both cases: A/UX
supports Macintosh software, and the various 80386 versions of UNIX
have two DOS emulators that run in the virtual 8086 emulation mode.
With no direct access to the hardware possible, and with multiuser
security preventing writes to files (at least in the 80386 case), the
worst the virus could do would be to infect user-written programs.
When they attempted to format the hard disk, or infect installed
software, they would simply trap and abort the virtual DOS image.
UNIX-based software is extremely unlikely to be infected, since a UNIX
virus would have to infect source code to transfer out of a machine.

To defuse arguments about the Internet Worm, let us note that this
program was restricted to two brands of computer: VAXes and
68000-based Suns. And it infected a network that was deliberately
designed to be insecure. No, UNIX is not immune to trojan horses and
viruses, but by and large this sort of program is kept uninfectious
and benign by the nature of the system.

[Ed. I hope that you're wearing asbestos skivvies... :-) ]