On Sunday 12 August 2007 08:44:18 Howard Coles Jr. wrote: > On Saturday 11 August 2007 09:04:14 pm Johnny Rosenberg wrote: > > I just checked my firewall (I don't really remember when I > > restarted my laptop last time, but it was certainly not today) > > and it still shows a total of attacks = 0. In fact I have never > > seen it show anything else than 0. I haven't touched anything > > of the firewall, no settings done, everything is let through, > > as I understand it. The OS/dist is Linux/Ubuntu 7.04. > > > > When I had Windows (98, 2000 and XP), there were attacks > > several times each minute. Can the difference really be that > > big if the only thing that matters is how popular an operating > > system is? Than I can see two explanations: 1. I am the only > > one in the world using Linux 2. My Firewall lies to me. > > 3. Ok, I said two explanations, so I won't bother you with a > > third one. > > Yes the difference is that big. According to Wikipedia (the last > time I checked) Linux only had about 14 - 20 known virus, > however, (again, last time I heard) Windows has about 60K or > more. > > They don't have to attack you, there are a few sites on the net > that will do it for you. I can't remember any off the top of my > head, but search for security testing, or firewall security test, > and you should come up with a few. > > One of the reasons your Windows side gets attacked so much is > that it advertises so many open ports, and broadcasts so many > things that a Linux box doesn't. Now, you *can* add enough > services to a Linux box to make it so, but I wouldn't if I could > keep from it. Linux can be made just as insecure as Windows in > the hands of the right (ab)user. :-D
99.99% of the Microsoft Windows boxes are running with admin access immediately available to the primary user that logs into the box. Meaning they can do any admin functions they want to do without using a password. All an attacker has to do is get access to the box through that user account. Once they have that access they have total and complete access to the box and can do anything they want to do with or to the box. Compare that to all the other OSs, they run in a user mode with no admin functionality but the authorized user can type the admin password and do admin functions but once that function has been executed the admin is no longer available until the password is used again. An attacker could gain access to the box through the primary user who has admin access but the attacker still has to figure out yet another password before they can gain access to the admin functions of the box. Most attacks to a box come through e-mail, downloads, websites and external probes on the network. It makes no difference how many people are using Microsoft compared to the other OSs or how many viruses are written for an OS. Attackers know that the Microsoft OS is the easiest to attack because of the way it is coded and used. That is the main and biggest reason the OS is attacked so much. Also when malicious code is discovered that will exploit an Open Source OS or software application it is quickly fixed by one of the programmers and distributed to the repositories. Attackers know this also, they are not going to attack a more difficult system when there is a much easier one to attack. That is just like the criminals that go into a house will not target a house where they know the people have the ability to defend themselves. They will target a house where they know they have the advantage. Attackers/criminals are just like water/electricity they take the path of least resistance. People quit believing this crap about OS popularity or the crap about security is no different from one OS to the other. No OS is 100% secure 100% of the time, but that is no reason to say it does not matter then. I don't need to do anything to secure my system. If that is how you think then you deserve what you get because of you foolishness. -- http://24.197.142.167/ See the Openoffice.org FAQ Microsoft users go to http://www.pclinuxos.com for a great user friendly Linux experience! --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
