jonathon wrote:
Rahim Azzan wrote:
<snip>
Do I need my own anti virus scans, fire walls etc.
<snip>
If you connect a computer to the internet you should protect it with a
firewall and antivirus. Tests have shown that an unprotected PC
connected to the net is "taken over" within minutes. See for example
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2004-11-29-honeypot_x.htm
This is true regardless of which "office" suite you use; most attacks do
not come via that route. It seems things are worse if you run Windows,
better if you run a Mac or a Linux system. It is moot as to whether the
reason for this is because Mac/Linux are more secure or because Windows
is more common and therefore more likely to yield the results an
attacker wants. Both theories probably carry weight.
Whether you run MS Office (MSO) or OpenOffice (OO) probably makes very
little difference although OO is less used and therefore less subject to
attack; OO is also probably intrinsically more secure. Certainly a
password protected OO document seems to be harder to crack than a
password protected MSO document because of the encryption algorithm
used. Note though that, as I said, most attacks don't come via office
documents although it's not unheard of; infected Word documents were
very popular at one time.
and should I remove MS office before installing your
software?
If you want to delete it first, you may do so. If you want
to keep it, you may do so.
xan
jonathon
<snip>
--
Harold Fuchs
London, England
Please reply *only* to users@openoffice.org
