Zip file blanket ban not the answer to virus woes - experts

By Stuart Finlayson

With the .zip extension now being widely used by virus writers to wreak havoc on network security, organisations are considering the possibility of banning zip files.

But, according to industry specialists, not only are such policies unrealistic, they are also skirting around the problem rather than tackling it head on.

"Zip files have value. The benefits lie in storage and bandwidth savings," says Dave Hunt, CEO of C2C Systems, which provides a range of email lifecycle management software for Microsoft Exchange.

"Their existence in company storage and email systems is widespread, so it isn't really practical to 'ban' them. And how would users treat legacy zip files - would they be expected to extract them all and save them to disk or reattach to e-mails?" added Hunt.

"Banning zip files because of the potential security threat they pose is like banning email because it transmits spam and viruses," agreed Michael Osterman, president of technology research company Osterman Research. "What is needed is a way to maintain the use of zip files while ensuring that they do not contain harmful content, come from trusted senders and so forth."

"The role of users is the key," said Hunt. "When file compression and decompression is seamless and the content monitoring of zips is automated, the users will be isolated from the virus. They are not put in the position of deciding whether to open a possibly infected file."

"In the 'network administrator business,' it is best just to protect the end user as much as possible, as transparently as possible," says Michael Cushard, systems engineer at mobile computing device maker Mobility Electronics. Cushard uses several different layers of virus/spam protection for Mobility's email and end user workstation environments. "By the time the email reaches a person's inbox, it's been checked several times by several different products and can be assumed - with confidence - to be relatively benign."

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