[LINK] An interesting thought on virus liability

[Rick Welykochy]

Howard Lowndes wrote:

> My concern is that I don't believe the problem of possible database 
> corruption in the transfer process due to an introduced virus has been 
> addressed and given the potential for a corrupted database resulting in 
> a catastrophic incident, I find the thought disturbing.
> 
> I am thinking that I should recommend to my client that he maintains a 
> dedicated PC under engineering control for the purpose of these transfers.
> 
> What are your thoughts.

How long is a piece of string? What is the intent of the person who
wrote the virus?

Your concern is valid since it is possible for a virus to do *anything*.
Ask youself what is the possibility of a virus being written with the
intent of corrupting a database. What purpose would it serve?

There is another possibly, and this happens far more often. Many viruses
are copied and adapted by kiddies who wouldn't know a stack overflow
from an easter egg. Their viruses have unintended consequences and these
are the real worry. They could unintentionally alter the memory management
or buffer pool used by a database causing data corruption. I shudder
to think what would happen to an aviation guidance system if there were
even a few bytes of control or program data accidentally corrupted as
the side effect of a virus.

cheers
rickw



-- 
_________________________________
Rick Welykochy || Praxis Services

Windows accelerator: G*m1*m2/r^2
     -- with apologies to John Clear