[ILUG] Re: inoculate files

[Vincent Cunniffe]

Silvan delaney wrote:

> 21/09/2001 12:29:48, Vincent Cunniffe <vincent at cunniffe.net> wrote:
> 
> 
>>Silvan delaney wrote:
>>
>>
>>>hi all,
>>>can you tell me please what that means: to inoculate files???
>>>
>>
>>Technically, it's a word from biology which means to introduce
>>something to a system, usually with the intention of altering
>>behaviour. Examples are innoculating humans with vaccines, which
>>is one usage of the word to indicate a pro-active defence.
>>
>>In software terms, it's usually taken to mean an after-the-fact
>>cleaning of a viral infection, by means of scanning files for
>>known digital signatures and then removing them once found.
>>
>>
> so does that mean, that i should leave inoculation enabled when scanning for virus?
> silvan


Depends entirely on the environment, nature of the system, scanning
software, etc.

Sometimes the removal process can wreck the file in question, for
example, so doing so automatically with critical data might be less
useful than isolating it once detected and copying the data safely
before trying to clean it.

In general, I'd say leave it enabled unless you *really* cannot
afford to lose any data.

Regards,

Vin