LISTSERV Postmasters and List Owners:
 
   Pardon the cross posting but I think this is important to say (probably
to say again as I'm sure others have said it).
 
   There has been some talk about the ZT EXEC being distributed lately.
I haven't seen any here but some places have been getting hundreds of copies.
I think we as listserv postmasters and list owners can help.
 
   In my humble opinion EVERY list should have Files= No coded unless
there is a really good reason to do otherwise (in other words, unless
it is used for local or BITNET file distribution).
 
   Very few lists are pure BITNET any more and trying to send files to
them just doesn't make sense any longer.  In fact, I think it would be
best to have the default Files= No . We have Files= No coded in the
prototype we use for list set-up.
 
   Having Files= Yes allows trojans like ZT to exploit that to create
hundreds of intact copies!   We've had Files= No on all our lists for several
years now with no bad effects.  We did that after getting complaints about
our lists distributing trojans.  All it takes is one names file entry for
a list to have that list exploited.
 
   Marty Hoag     a listserv postmaster and list owner