Carlos E. R. wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > > The Tuesday 2007-08-07 at 14:31 -0400, Michael Letourneau wrote: > >> But again, in either of those cases not being root does not necessarily >> prevent your machine from being infected and/or the possible results >> thereof. Everyone remembers Melissa, >> http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-1999-04.html, if that were designed >> for >> a Linux system, not being root would not stop/prevent it at all. > > Ha! > > ] Our analysis of this macro virus indicates that human action (in the > ] form of a user opening an infected Word document) is required for this > ] virus to propagate. > > Virus or Trojan? Or social engineering? :-p > > All is not black and white... >
Very true. And hopefully the world has learned something. Though you can never be sure, my wife almost fell for one of those greeting card things, and she is pretty darn savvy for not following things... But that still re-enforces the point about the Linux Desktop, popularity and virii. If the Linux Desktop did become as popular as it should be (IMHO), you would have un-educated users, who often did not have recent backups, who would follow links, open documents, etc. that they should not. And just because they were not root, would not stop something that was built upon the fundamentals of Melissa from propagating. We cannot be content that because our default security setup is better than Windows, we are thus invulnerable. If we want to see Linux for the common man, then we have to realize the common man will likely bring with them, their lack of knowledge and lack of care. And with them will follow the traps, trojans, and virii that live off them, albeit more advanced and altered than today. Constant vigilance, as they say ;) Michael -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
