Star Making Your PC Secure: A Responsibility
Linked by Jeremy LaCroix on Wed 13th Aug 2003 16:59 UTC
Privacy, Security, Encryption 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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Windows
by linuxlewis on Wed 13th Aug 2003 19:55 UTC

Here is the problem with this article. The vast majority of PC users are not tech saavy and don't care about security. Most do not have broadband connections or run software or hardware firewalls. Most probably do not have an OS more modern than MR and if they do the firewall is not on or properly configured.

Your Linux users are a little bit more saavy often having experience with more than one operating system. The Mac users can be just as clueless as PC users but more likely than not they proabably do use PCs on a daily basis so they are somewhat familiar with their problems.

I would say that educating users is important but at the same time MS really needs to focus on making their OS less infallible than it is. It would not at all surprise to find that a majority of these attacks are launched by script kiddies with less than an intermediate knowledge of TCP/IP, networking and Windows.

You can always say that no OS is perfect but with Windows coming from a company whose economic, intellectual and R&D assets that are about infinite compared to small operations like Apple, BSD and Linux its really a pathetic excuse and not worth mentioning.