It's the time of year again, folks. "The year 2007 has been an interesting year that brought us improved security with Windows Vista and Mac OS X Leopard (10.5). But to get some perspective of how many publicly known holes found in these two operating systems, I've compiled all the security flaws in Mac OS X and Windows XP and Vista and placed them side by side. This is significant because it shows a trend that can give us a good estimate for how many flaws we can expect to find in the coming months." Do with it as you please.
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Member since:2006-06-21
No, it proves that you have little green leprechauns guarding your household. Because I fail to see how the fact that you are "a sensible user" and "know about the various security threats" (wow) magically manages to protect your computers. Do you actually do something to protect them yourself? Do you take measures of some kind? What do you do, stand in front of the UTP wire with a baseball bat and look mean? Did you perhaps forget to mention that your ISP runs a tight firewall? Or that your computers are behind a router? Because otherwise, a naked XP SP2 on a public IP, no antivirus, no firewall, equals not your box anymore. If that's not the case, consider giving the little green men their due credit, dude.
Member since:2006-02-15
Or that your computers are behind a router? Because otherwise, a naked XP SP2 on a public IP, no antivirus, no firewall, equals not your box anymore. If that's not the case, consider giving the little green men their due credit, dude.
Won't you people stop bashing XP when you yourself don't clearly have a clue? I am a Linux user first and foremost but I do use XP to play games (Linux sucks for gaming). I installed XP SP2, it had firewall on by default so no problems there..There is a router in my network but it was acting as a plain bridge so it means there was no NAT involved. I didn't install any security software on the machine either. It worked just fine for half a year before the hardware itself malfunctioned. Now, you're either saying I'm a liar or that I had some green leprechauns too? Nope, XP isn't as insecure as you claim. Sure it has it's issues but most of them are caused by the USER!
Member since:2005-07-07
Yep, behind a router performing NAT. I do have a particularly good ISP however and they probably do run a very tight firewall... I wouldn't consider paying £20 a month to anyone that didn't.
Again though... what is it with people on this site and their attitudes? Are they just unable to put together a coherent argument or comment without being demeaning or acting like children? Pathetic!
Member since:2006-10-08
"And I have had a number of Windows computers since the release of XP and none of them have run Anti-Virus or Anti-Malware software and I've never had a problem with them..."
Sorry, I may tell you that this claim does not have any value because you simply cannot tell if you have any problem. Most malware works in the background so the user of the compromized PC does not notice anything - this is intended for the malware running in the background and doing its job.
Formalized: Security issue = { yes | no | can't tell }
Trinary logic.
Because "Windows" usually does not provide sufficient means of diagnostics you cannot gain any knowledge abozt what's goiing on inside your system. So it's not very educated to state "I have no problems" while you really don't know.
Compare it to a traffic light that you cannot see. It is either red or green, but without looking at it, you don't know in which state it is.
And man, viruses don't say "echo Looking for Sybille" anymore. :-)
" all this proves is that I'm a sensible user and know about the various security threats that exist."
No, this doesn't prove this statement, allthough it's completely possible that you are a sensible user with knowledge about security issues.
It proves that you cannot tell.
But it could also imply that you are a irresponsible user that does not care about how he is a threat to others on the Internet.
"I don't care. I have my dancing elephants, my porn video playing and I can download MP3 for free. Viruses? No, I don't have any." *ring* *ring* "Hello, Sir, this is the FBI. You've been conveyed to have running a file server that shares child pornography. May we have your PC for evidence please?" Oops...
In Germany, users of "Windows" got convicted because they did run an illegal file sharing system. They claimed to have no knowledge about this, but they were sure they had no virus or malware issues, because they didn't care.
I'm sure you know what I've tried to say.
Member since:2005-07-07
As I said above, I am behind a router performing NAT, the only conceivable way a virus could take control of my computer is if I was to download a trojan or some ActiveX control. I use Firefox, and I rarely download any software.
I do know a little bit about network traffic analysis however, and my router does provide extensive logs... I am confident that there is no malware on my computer.
Regardless your point is valid... but even with Anti-Malware software installed you still don't KNOW that your system isn't infected. How long did Sony's rootkit hide out before someone discovered it? Your point also applies to ANY computer system attached to a puplic network... that means Linux and OS X too. So unless the users of those platforms are running Anti-Malware software even they can't be sure that their systems aren't infected. (And even WITH Anti-Malware software you STILL CAN'T be SURE).
Member since:
2005-07-07
And I have had a number of Windows computers since the release of XP and none of them have run Anti-Virus or Anti-Malware software and I've never had a problem with them... all this proves is that I'm a sensible user and know about the various security threats that exist.
In the real world however there are people (lots of people) who think "Oh, cool, look at this video player that lets me watch porn... I'll just type in my administrator password, my bank account number, my national insurance number...".