Floppies Banned from Program issue

[Harry Potter]

Don't mind me or this post; I'm just complaining.

During the weekdays, I go to a special program. This program has computers for internet use. However, floppies have been banned from the program. This is partially my fault, for I broke one of the computers when I tried to install something on the hard drive. I know what I did wrong, and can keep stuff on floppy, and I should not cause damage a second time. Also, the staff are afraid of viruses. Printer use is also banned because of abuse of printer services. I'm thinking that, provided that 1. a disk is guaranteed virus-free--or gets scanned for viruses before use--and 2. the person with the disk is a responsible user, that the person should be allowed to bring in a floppy, even if supervised.

[Imortis]

... I'm thinking that, provided that 1. a disk is guaranteed virus-free--or gets scanned for viruses before use--and 2. the person with the disk is a responsible user, that the person should be allowed to bring in a floppy, even if supervised.

Unfortunately, the questions become very simple: How does one determine that a computer is virus free, and how does one determine who is a responsible user?

It is impossible to ensure that anything is virus free, and the type of responsibility you speak of is a judgment call. In both cases, there is no way to be sure of a right decision, until after the damage has been done.

[moneo]

I agree with Imortis, but here is a little background.

Diskettes have been notorious for introducing viruses into PCs for many years.

There are two ways you can get viruses from diskettes:
1. Via an infected executable program on the diskette.
2. Via a boot record virus on the diskette.

You can avoid the virus in executables by never having an executable on your diskettes. The trouble is that this becomes "an honor system" and difficult to control when you have multiple users on a PC. Actually, copying executables is a problem from any device or external connection (networks or internet) on the PC, besides diskettes. Did you ever wonder why email systems won't let you put executables into a download? Some people disguise these executables, but this doesn't always work.

The boot record virus, or a virus contained in the boot record of the diskette, is very hard to detect. All diskettes have boot records so that they can be self-loading. Back in 1992, while at Citibank, I wrote a little utility which overlayed the boot record of a diskette with a clean boot record from a new diskette, which was stored in the utility program. If the diskette was infected, it was now clean. This worked great for 350 users, but they had to remember to run my utility everytime they inserted a diskette into their PC.

This doesn't really solve your problem, but I hope it gives you some ideas.

Regards..... Moneo

[burger2227]

Any medium can transfer viruses period!

That includes DVD's, CD's, memory sticks, floppies, or hard drives.

Plus emails and web pages.

Ted

[bongomeno]

a virus dosent have to be an .exe or .com file, but can be scripts such as vb or batch files or a adobie acrobat file.

example:
make a batch file that contains the command 'LOGOFF' and make it copy itself into your startup folder. (dont really do it. lol)i did this to my biology teacher =]>

also, a .com if executed before an .exe if they have the same name.
this can be used to trick windows into opening the wrong thing and the .com being the virus.

the best way to deliver a virus is probably over a network...
a ddos (distributed denial of service). it searches ports and ip addreses until it finds an open one, then authenticates it (make sure its a good connection) and delivers the virus. if you use it to attack a server, you can use it to suck up the bandwith ( i think you do this by flooding it with incomplete data packets). or maby you can consume the cpu by making the program execute itself thousands of times.

as for floppy disks....... there are some advantages to using it to deliver a virus, but i dont think that you shouldnt be able to use them!

good luck

[bongomeno]

a virus dosent have to be an .exe or .com file, but can be scripts such as vb or batch files or a adobie acrobat file.

example:
make a batch file that contains the command 'LOGOFF' and make it copy itself into your startup folder. (dont really do it. lol)i did this to my biology teacher =]>

also, a .com if executed before an .exe if they have the same name.
this can be used to trick windows into opening the wrong thing and the .com being the virus.

the best way to deliver a virus is probably over a network...
a ddos (distributed denial of service). it searches ports and ip addreses until it finds an open one, then authenticates it (make sure its a good connection) and delivers the virus. if you use it to attack a server, you can use it to suck up the bandwith ( i think you do this by flooding it with incomplete data packets). or maby you can consume the cpu by making the program execute itself thousands of times.

as for floppy disks....... there are some advantages to using it to deliver a virus, but i dont think that you shouldnt be able to use them!

good luck

[burger2227]

How on earth did you double post here? LOL

You can do us a favor and delete one if you come back soon enough.

[Harry Potter]

Thank you for responding. I was expecting a negative response. All of you are right, of course. I made progress, though: the Administrator said he'll think about it.

[Harry Potter]

False response: the Administrator said no.