John, Very well said!
Danny H. Cox -----Original Message----- From: Sylar, John [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Friday, August 16, 2002 9:34 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [gb-users] win2K security problems, the facts! I mentioned seven seconds to compromise a test machine as the fastest I've seen so far. I don't know what your machine really looks like or where it is. I threw that out there as an example of what's possible. Again, YMMV.... Its your responsibility to lock up your valuables, not Microsoft's. I'll agree to a point that the model for making money with software has contributed to security problems. There's no incentive to write good, secure code. Pressure from users is what drives the release of software, in good shape or not. That's why license agreements are written with liability waivers. Microsoft's model of market domination stems from ease of use, and as such, has left a lot of room for improvement in the reliability of its OS and companion software. But the same is now true of Linux and Unix implementations. Holes in commercial Linux software are being discovered at a faster rate than in those in Microsoft products. Why? The rush to market; to rush to expand the user base, to wit: Your question seems to come from an unspoken credo that most users have today: Give me convenience or give me death. Its got to work right out of the box with a minimum of configuration and minimum of knowledge about how it actually works. These days, you don't have to understand how the Internet works; about ports, protocols, and interactions with the operating system, to get a web cam from your house. But you should. Caveat Emptor. I don't leave my car unlocked, and even so, I don't leave anything in it I want to keep for a while. If I leave the car open and I get robbed, I have to endure being laughed at when I call the police. As well, there are allot of people that spend their time figuring out how to steal cars. Same principle applies to your computer. I'll admit I don't need to understand how the car was engineered to drive it, but I do understand a little bit about physics, and how the parts that make up the car interact, so that I can get from point A to point B in one piece every day for a long time. That's nobody's responsibility but mine. Maybe we should require licenses to operate computers on the Internet.... Please do your research and have fun. Understanding computer security in principle is not as hard as it sounds. It just takes a little midnight oil... S. -----Original Message----- From: Marc Suxdorf [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Friday, August 16, 2002 10:59 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: AW: [gb-users] win2K security problems, the facts! Sam, you mention seven seconds to plant a Trojan on my sample machine when the intruder knows my system and my open ports? Now I really start to get worried: Does this work with any open ports? What about my web cam software at home, which enables me to watch my house when I am away on holidays? If it's all sooooo easy, why doesn't Microsoft worry about huge legal suits selling such insecure Operating Systems. Every car manufacturer would be sued to bankruptcy, if he tried to sell an insecure car. Isn't the Internet access a full part of Microsoft Windows? --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to the digest version first unsubscribe, then e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archive of the last 1000 messages: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to the digest version first unsubscribe, then e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archive of the last 1000 messages: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
