Re:-
If your radio computers must be connected to the internet, as mine are for DX
clusters, Club Log, firmware updates, etc., etc., then this may not be a good
idea, since older systems are targets for malware. When MS stops supplying
security patches, the situation will become even worse.
Victor 4X6GP
------------------------------------------------------------------------
ALL systems are targets for malware, and crypto currency mining, be
aware of that.
As for security, well, Windows 7 is OK "Now", but after Feb' next year,
as has happened within days of Win2k and XP being cast adrift, some
"new" (previously known to hackers, but unreported to MS) vulnerability
will be leveraged against Win7. Win 10 (& perhaps 8.x) will be
patched, but 7, ?
Depends on what % of the web is still populated by W7 I guess, MS have
pushed out one or two updates to XP long after they otherwise cast it,
purely due to the severity of the issue, and the damage even a small %
of such population could cause. The recent RDP issue I think being one
of them.
So long as your border gateway device is secure, and correctly
configured (UPnP disabled) updated and so on, you could survive running
Windows 9x, so long as you never "went anywhere bad" on the 'net, and
that's the problem.
You have in practice, little control where your browser goes. OK, you
my point it at an otherwise trustworthy site (QRZ, QSL, clublog and so
on.) But they have adverts on there that are served up by external sites.
Worse, many are animated to catch your eye, and also respond to the
mouse cursor moving across them. ANYTHING that moves on screen is
running code, and THAT IS where the issue is. That code can do anything
it wants, as well as what you see it doing. Someone will probably know
you moved (even unconsciously) your mouse pointer over their add.
Some third party tools ("Ublock Origin" etc) can block many, but not all
of such things. But many genuine sites that rely on the ad's to provide
revenue to cover running costs, may then block your access to the site
you want.
~ ~ ~
Re your border gateway devices... Be prepared for some firmware
updates in the near future. One of the popular embedded OS's used
"VxWorks" has been found to have (at least) 11 critical vulnerabilities,
and this stuff runs in billions of devices world wide, designed to be
interconnected via the web too.
See:- https://www.grc.com/sn/sn-725-notes.pdf Then scroll down to page
9 or 10 (depending on your reader)
Note too: New problems for exposed NAS devices, that many people are
unknowingly showing to the world!
73.
Dave G0WBX.
--
Created on and sent from a Unix like PC running and using free and open source
software:
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