A request to the IT department
Posted on August 28, 2003
Filed Under /dev/null/ | 274 views |
By now we’re all well aware that yet another Windows virus is circling the globe like flies at the dump on a new-found bag of used baby diapers. We’re all well aware of how it works and that it spoofs the From and Reply-to headers of the email it sends.
So why am I getting dozens and dozens of mail bounces telling me that email I sent couldn’t be delivered because it contains a virus? Emails that I never actually sent, emails that were sent from someone else but contain my spoofed address?
Why? Not because email is intrinsically broken. Not because this virus is particularly nasty or clever or zero-day. Not because “well, that’s just how it all works”. It’s because the IT department at whomever is bouncing these bogus emails hasn’t bothered to not bounce emails that are so patently, obviously, blatantly infected with a virus.
Dear IT department: the proper place for virus-infected emails is /dev/null/ not back in my Inbox.