We just got the following on the copyediting-l mailing list:
Run that anti-virus software, please.
Jane is currently communicating with the IU list manager. We have
received a bounced message from another LIST that claims to have been
submitted to the list by CE-L.
It is likely that multiple subscribers' computers are now infected. In
a situation like this, the list manager might decide that the best
option is to shut down all lists. This is pure speculation on my part.
If CE-L suddenly disappears, you'll at least have been forewarned.
Run that anti-virus software, please.
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no subject
K. [skeptical, and a list mom from way back]
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What seems to be happening is that someone, or possibly a couple of someones, sent a virus to the list (lots of people have the list address in their address books), and now a second list claims to have gotten it from our list.
The list has over a thousand subscribers (many of whom don't post, or post once in a blue moon), which means over a thousand people who could have sent it a virus.
It doesn't help that we had someone respond with the hoary and ineffectual suggestion of putting a bogus !10000 at the top of one's address book.
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no subject
Did the message in question have an attachment? Does copyediting allow attachments? The only virus I ever heard of that could be transmitted in plain ASCII was the ViRo .signature virus, and it cannot self-replicate.
This smells like hysterical and misinformed people freaking out for no reason (assuming the list does not permit attachments, as shouldn't).
K. [why people continue to use programs like Outlook is completely beyond me]m
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no subject
From: (Anonymous)
klez
Anita Rowland (http://www.anitarowland.com/)
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update
So far, so good.