Re: Should the List allow attachments?

[Martin Wessendorf-2]

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Dear All--

Responses regarding attachments were varied and for now I think it makes
the most sense to continue not allowing attachments in postings.  The
reasons for this have already been mentioned: to minimize the size of
emails and to avoid spreading viruses.  If there's an image that you
want to make available to the List, put it up on http://www.imgur.com 
(or on your own website), and include the link in your posting.  Imgur
provides free hosting for images; it's easy to use and it allows you to
include a description with the image.

If this doesn't work, let me know and we can reconsider the issue.

Thanks--

Martin Wessendorf
List Supervisor


On 3/10/2014 12:00 PM, Martin Wessendorf wrote:

> Dear all--
>
> Guy Cox and others have raised a good point about the List not
> allowing attachments.  In the past we prohibited attachments to avoid
> clogging e-mail accounts; when necessary, people have posted images on
> their own web sites or on a public site.  Clogging e-mail accounts is
> less of an issue now with faster connection speeds; moreover, we could
> configure the List to allow only attachments that are smaller than,
> say, 100 kbytes.  However, there is also the issue of viruses and
> trojans.  Executable code apparently can be embedded in images, both
> in the metadata and in the image itself (--see
> https://threatpost.com/png-image-metadata-leading-to-iframe-injections/104047 
> ).
>
> I doubt that any member of the List would knowingly post an infected
> image, but it's unclear how serious a risk would remain.  Are there
> security-savvy people out there who can offer advice?
>
> Thanks--
>
> Martin Wessendorf
> Confocal List Supervisor

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