Linked by Jeremy LaCroix on Wed 13th Aug 2003 16:59 UTC
I am a "Technologist", a Technology enthusiast that is usually the one that is called should a major catastrophe strike an end user. My saga of computer rescues becomes a plot that is ever so thickening, if not only for the fact that's it's becoming incredibly easy for hackers and malicious code writers these days to invade personal property to find, seek, and destroy. Each year, virus and hacker threats increase, and in addition the damage trail left behind is something of a problem. Not to forget, a majority of "PC Panic" cases I've come across are often times the same common, "major" problem.
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"and I always use a hardware firewall. "
Installing a firewall on Windows is just plain stupid since Windows is so bloated. However using a software firewall on BSD's or Linux is very similar to using a hardware firewall (as long as you do a minimal installation). After all, that is what a hardware firewall is, a minimal operating environment with a software firewall on top and hardware that accelerates it's ability to process packets.
"I don't use a firewall (have a hardware firewall, but it's turned off), and I don't have anti-virus software running in the background. "
I don't know if you are being serious or not, but if you do have a firewall and you are not using it, you do not know as much as you think you do. Just because your system is patched up, it doesn't mean that there aren't any unknown exploits in your services that a hacker might know about. Furtheremore, with a firewall, you can limit connections to outgoing only and limit even further limit connections to syn or ack packets.
"Yeah! Macs are so secure that my boss forgot his password and I was able to boot into single user mode and take over the root account."
This is not a security 'problem'. It is a feature. I'm not being sarcastic. Anyone who has access to the physical computer should be able to do whatever he wants. When someone can physically get to the computer, no amount of security is going to be able to protect you.