sitting at work this morning i got a email like this:

From: r.stillings@exmail.de
Sent: 08 March 2004 12:24
To: Andrew **********
Subject: Hey, ya! =))
attachments: attacheddocuments.zip
I don't bite, weah!

password: 18510


Course i thought , hmmmmmm, and low and behold it was a beagle variant, now becuase my company has many a virus/security infrastructure i decided to find out why the attachment wasnt blocked.

the answer:-

apparently ANY ANTIVIRUS companies by law are now allowed to scan encrpyted/passworded zip files.

just wondering if anybody uses a AV that enables blocking of passworded zips?
or did anybody get a email like this?

its gonna be hell if every dumb end user gets this email and it spreads via zipped passworded files :-)

some companies have started using the following technique :

if attachment = .zip file --> try all words in body of email as password.

I dont think there's any law against AV product doing this

mail sweeper or mimesweeper (if anybody heard of that)
has an option to block all passworded zips :-)
suppose thatll do

But blocking all zipped files can t be applied in some firms....
The best solution still a up to date antivirus, or inform this dumb end user as you said andydis :-)

What is it?