Forum Moderators: phranque
(Besides, Apple and Open Source aren't immune. And, if everybody moves over to them they'll become targets of the virus writers).
Face it nearly all (99.99+%) infect only Windows machines.99.99+% infect Windows machines because 99.99+% of people use Windows machines.
Just to set the record straight here apples desktop market share is above 3% [macobserver.com] and discounting corperate machines it may be the OS used on up to 12% of personal computers [aroundcny.com]. Linux desktops are given about 2% of the market [news.com.com]. These statistics reflect the state of the market 12 months ago and I would imagine that linux use has only increased in the time since. So 99.9999999999999% of people do not run windows despite the popular persistant rumor, on home desktops ~85% of people do but perhaps there was a rounding error involved. There is no rounding error however with the distribution of viruses (linux has yet to get beyond proof of concept type deals and mac has only done marginally worse)
Secondly those who subscribes to the pervasion of viruses being caused by popularity arguement are likely those who have no expirience with alternate operating systems. There are many "features" in windows that allow viruses, trojans, spyware and the ilk to infect the computer (at both a user and kernel level) that do not exist outside of windows. When XP cant be patched to the security level of 95 (though in fairness it seems to crash less frequently) it does not represent any function of OS popularity - the market share is roughly the same - it represents Microsoft being unwilling or unable to handle security appropriately. They recommend you employ a firewall so as to keep their defective design from affecting you. I recommend you take a good look at knoppix before wasting the $40
Prevents automatic sending....
A non issue for most viruses, since they almost always use their own smtp engine. Is that patch available for outlook express?, version 5x, or do you have to 'upgrade' to 6? Personally, I don't like the IE / Outlook Express 6 package at all, wouldn't use it on my main system.
Is that patch available for outlook express?
Not sure, but I think so.
There are many "features" in windows that allow viruses, trojans, spyware and the ilk to infect the computer (at both a user and kernel level) that do not exist outside of windows
It's very difficult to defend microsoft on security. Impossible perhaps. And their longhorn and paladium initiatives will be horrible for privacy and the consumer.
Norton, mcafee, etc are good
If I or for that matter any 9 year old with some smarts and a downloaded virus lab from any one of the various places that there are in hacklandz( where incedentally unless you go in in only "view source" they will own your ass by the time you see the graphics...'n' you can "trash" the box because it will maybe get your motherboard too ...)can walk through "etc" ( whats the box look like?...nice graphics? ...good as "n" ...SOLD!)as easy as we can get through N*rton and Mc*fee and "k" ...( thats the one they sell you on the hackboardz..."patched" ..by Igor ..) ..then I wouldnt put "etc" in place either .......
'doze updates and patches ....ROTFALOL...thats all ROTFALOL...
Isitreal ...you're just egging him on huh ..?
People who sound like they know what they are talking about and then tell you with the above you will be secure are why the rest of us have to take precautions and why I have to spend so much time fixing machines for folks who say "well I read that a good AV like Norton ......."
No one AV will near totally protect you ...maybe not even 2 or 3 in tandem ...
Hardware firewall will maybe (almost)...even then its only 90% ...
( after all you or your kids or someone might just put in that cd that they got from their friends etc ..corse its clean ...and they didn't have to go through your firewall box to do it ...)...(and there's other ways ..oh boy there are! )
Don't read AV box sides in the supermarket ...think!
If I wasn't so tired laughing then I'd give some more ways that you can be "compromised"....or maybe someone else would like to ...maybe "isitreal" can remember the thread about "the Lan guy" and link it ...I can never find stuff here afterwards ...
Some of it was "tongue in cheek"..but we just touched on how to get at your server ..I've read good threads here by people who know what they are talking about ..
but
Norton, mcafee, etc are good...:)
y 'know there are 'sniffers' that look for these on machines just to hit!
The outlook security patch will prevent ALL email born viruses.
I suspect that comments like this are making virus writers around the world at least smile, if not burst out laughing hysterically.
Not to mention most of the mods , sysadmins and owners /coders not to far from here....and some regulars ...
And their longhorn and paladium initiatives
Luv the roundy corners tho ...even if the mouse probably will send your dna sample and retinal print back to the mothership with the first patch/update/registration connection...
M$ was bout code and product ...now they're seriously into GUI and tracking too ....
I just gotta make the time to learn penguin!
#2 a real AV ..not some soap powder lookalike .. ... such as what? are there any decent av packages out there that you would recommend leosghost, I've had trouble finding that info out though I look now and then when norton or macafee begin to bug me more than normal.
Here's the LAN link: fun reading on windows?security? [webmasterworld.com]
I just gotta make the time to learn penguin!
I do that off and on every year, but the stuff still is no match for w2k in terms of desktop performance, although redhat 8 was the best I'd seen and used so far, still a bit off what I want a desktop to do, like be able to update software easily... but since most of what I do is on apache/php/mysql running on firefox how much difference can it really make now?
To those who think it's just how many windows boxes, try linux sometime, just use it for a few days, you'll immediately see why it's inherently more secure, every time you want to do anything that can affect the box or os you have to jump down into root user mode, then jump back out, it's a different idea from windows, linux intallations default to secure, not insecure like win stuff. Just today I had to switch an office user to full admin privileges on an office machine so she could use it, av won't update, ACT won't run or install without those permissions, sigh...
Symantec several years ago dumped all their good programmers and hired newbies to take care of things, figuring the av stuff was good enough, just needed maintainance mode care, don't know what they're up to now, but that's what they were doing then, and you could tell.
But really, even though norton and macafee both kind of suck, for different reasons, if you can just get the user to stop viewing/opening the email the battle is half won, and if you can get them onto a text only email client, it's almost completely won, with everything everyone mentions, hardware router especially. And then if one must go visit those fun hacker sites, do it on a completely separate machine, disconnected from the network completely...
The amazing thing about how antivirus software is marketed, people actually believe that the software will protect them from getting all viruses... must be something in the name?
they will own your ass by the time you see the graphicsNot to drift too far off topic, but if you use something like opera or firefox with image viewing turned off, would that protect enough? Or should you use lynx?
- lavasoft adaware: scans for all kinds of spyware and comes with a scanner that prompts for all changes in the registry so no spyware can be installed behind the scenes
- sygate free personal firewall (zone alarm created some well documented problems for some internet activity). sygate is much more professional
-AVG free virus scanner and do daily automatic updates
- regulary back up your most important files on CDRW
