78 lines
3.6 KiB
Plaintext
78 lines
3.6 KiB
Plaintext
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Date: 30 Nov 1983 1517-PST
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From: Craig Milo Rogers <ROGERS at USC-ISIB>
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To: TCP-IP at SRI-NIC
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Re: Netmail Spreads Common Cold
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Marina del Rey, CA (IP) --
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Public health officials reported a sharp upswing in common
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colds among computer scientists this year. The new cold strains
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originally appear in major computer centers, then spread throughout
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the country in a matter of hours. Researchers grappling with this
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issue have concluded that there is only one possible explanation for
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the sudden appearance and rapid dissemination of the colds: they
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are spread through electronic mail.
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It is a long established fact that colds and other diseases
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may be transmitted through the mail. Viruses and bacteria accumulate
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on a letter while it is being written. The viruses and bacteria are
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dormant while the letter is in transit. When the letter is opened,
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the viruses and bacteria are shaken into the air and inhaled by the
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recipient, who becomes infected.
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A lesser-known fact is that colds may be spread over the phone.
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This usually occures when an infected individual sneezes into a public
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phone. The next individual to use that same phone will often be infected
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by the viruses and bacteria on the phone's mouthpiece. However, what
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most people don't know is that when a person with a cold sneezes into
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a phone, the person at the other end may be infected if they were holding
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their phone close enough for the germs to enter their ear canal.
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It is now possible to demonstrate similar effects for Internet
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mail. If a person sneezes while sending a message in Hermes or MM,
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the recipient stands a fair chance of catching the same cold. Strangely
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enough, this effect has not occured with multimedia mail, perhaps because
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it currently uses UDP datagrams instead of TCP connections between the
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user terminals and the mail forwarders.
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Other electronic mail systems also spread diseases. For example,
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UUCP spreads Unix. Of particular concern are the electronic mailing lists.
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Each message sent to one of these lists is replicated and retransmitted to
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dozens or even hundreds of recipients. A single infected message can
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strike dozens of victims coast-to-coast within a matter of minutes. Public
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health officials are quite worried about MCI mail, which uses both printed
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and electronic delivery systems, thus threatening the health of the entire
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nation.
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Internet Header Health Inspectors will work closely with the
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Protocol Police in the next few months to develop methods of dealing with
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infected packets. Netmail may be delayed at Internet Gateways if the
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Innoculated-by: records are not current. The EGP Quarantine command
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will be used to isolate Autonomous Systems which are suspected of sending
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contaminated datagrams. A recently released DoD report suggests that
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part of the impetus behind the ARPANET/Milnet split and the current
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partitioned network research, is to minimize the possible effects of
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Internet Bacteriological Warfare.
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These problems are also being pursued by the International Standards
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Organization. The committee on Open Systems Innoculation (ISO/OSInnoc)
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recently released a draft report on a 7-layer cold encapsulation for
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use by the World Health Organization in Third World Nations.
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Date: 4 Dec 1983 11:32-PST
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From: CERF at USC-ISI
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To: ROGERS at USC-ISIB
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cc: TCP-IP at SRI-NIC
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Re: Netmail Spreads Common Cold
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Message-ID: <[USC-ISI] 4-Dec-83 11:32:23.CERF>
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In-Reply-To: Msg of 30 Nov 83 1517-PST from Craig Milo Rogers <ROGERS@USC-ISIB>
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CRAIG,
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MCI MAIL PASSES THROUGH THE X.25 FILTER BEFORE IT CAN GO
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ANYWHERE. AS A CONSEQUENCE, NO GERMS SURVIVE. HELL, THE PACKETS
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ALMOST DON'T SURVIVE GOING THROUGH X.25, LET ALONE SOME POOR
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BACTERIUM...
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VINT CERF
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