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 tcp1Premium
join:2000-04-17
Herndon, VA
 ·Verizon FiOS
| reply to IMHO
Re: Thank You.... No, Mr. anonymous!
I don't think what I said is mean spirited, like you're implying! I'm just tired of people looking in the wrong places to try and solve this really lousy problem we've got.. And it is a big problem.
It's irresponsible to tell everyone that simply switching to some new alternative software will cure all the world's ills. That IS the way Firefox and Mozilla has been touted on DSLR as of late -- that it's just plop, plop, fizz fizz -- and with the installation of Mozilla away goes all your cares about security, viruses, worms and malware.
It just ain't so, and it's a BAD THING to make it out like it is.
There's no quick fix, there's no simple answer. If we try and go for the easiest solution of "Just stop using IE", we'll be back at square one in a couple of years -- with twice as many malevolent crapware authors with two more years of experience under their belts.
Internet users, as a whole, do not understand security. They'll shy away from sharing floppy disks and downoading legitimate shareware -- thinking that's what spreads worms and viruses (it does not), while they go a year between patches and run AV software from 1999.
Then, when their machine gets infected and they lose everything, they blame Microsoft. After that, someone chimes in "Well, if you had just used Firefox.." and I just smack my head in disbelief.
GENERALLY, worms and viruses do not just jump onto your machine unannounced. Despite what was said in initial reports, patched machines were NOT susceptible to this latest worm outbreak (Which really did turn out to be underwhelming, didn't it?). As a matter of fact, it's been surmised now that this worm was installed on servers by means of -physical access- in some cases. HUH!?
I saw the arguments last week about how the problem wasn't the fact that admins were lazy about patching their servers or had no idea what theye were doing -- but that "IIS was crap, you shouldn't use it."
Ok, fine. Apache, in general, may be more secure than IIS 4. IIS 5+ is nowhere near as bad. And I can guarantee you that if Apache was created by a huge company that everyone loved to hate, there'd be plenty of exploits as well. (That, and if people were running Apache/Win32, which is nowhere near as stable as the Unix version of Apache.)
This is NOT THE ANSWER! The answer is more diligence, education, and responsibility. That's my point, and I don't see what's so bad about it! | |
| You Said: "Internet users, as a whole, do not understand security. They'll shy away from sharing floppy disks and downoading legitimate shareware -- thinking that's what spreads worms and viruses (it does not), while they go a year between patches and run AV software from 1999.
Then, when their machine gets infected and they lose everything, they blame Microsoft. After that, someone chimes in "Well, if you had just used Firefox.." and I just smack my head in disbelief.
GENERALLY, worms and viruses do not just jump onto your machine unannounced."
I have a very well protected system, with the latest virus/firewall updates and have updated all the Microsoft patches, etc. OK, I agree about Firefox, but I do blame Microsoft for some of the problems.
I recently went to a previously, but not recently, visited freeware website! I was immediately attacked. The only thing that couldn't be resolved was my browser being hijacked! I did everything that was recommended to get rid of the hijacker, and nothing worked! CWShredder is what got rid of it, in a blink of an eye! I do not go to questionable sites, but as you know more and more legit sites are being hacked, and that is how a lot of us are being attacked.
In other words, I did all I could to protect my system, therefore I have to blame Microsoft for a 'hole' in their software.
And, in other words, my system WAS invaded unannounced!
BTW, my reference to you getting up on the wrong side of the bed was not because of what you said... but HOW you said it. 
Cheers | | |
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| reply to tcp1
Sure there are no 100% secure solutions that don't involve turning your computer off and leaving it that way or pulling the plug to the internet and stop installing or using other software than what you already have on your computer...
BUT that doesn't mean that switching to more secure software won't help - It will .. A LOT.
While switching to an alternative browser (It doesn't have to be Firefox, just because many people prefer that, it doesn't necessarily mean you will) won't end all malware it will make your internet use WAY more safe.
My cousin and brother are part of the %p group .. the naive and clueless (at least when it comes to computers) and I have had to clean their PCs of hundreds of malware programs.
.. That is until I one year ago installed Firefox on both their computers.
My cousin took to it immediately liking it from the start .. my brother was more stubborn and believed that I couldn't possibly know better than a huge international company like Microsoft - If there really was something better , then everybody would be using it, and since "everybody" was using IE then I had to be wrong.
Still after using it for about a month he came to love using Firefox.
And my life wasn't invaded anymore by family members crying to me, that their PCs was doing weird things they didn't tell it to do and that it was generally extremely slow.
They haven't had a single piece of malware since that time one year ago.
Now sure if they had not been %p's I wouldn't have had to do anything , but not everybody are computer wiz's and even if they were using more secure software would be a barrier for malware to workaround.
Other browsers don't support ActiveX so they are 100% to all the many ActiveX exploits.
And they are also less likely to be attacked because they are underdogs and malware programmers do not target them .. as you point out this won't keep them safe for all time if they gain popularity , but even then then market would be more diverse consisting of not just one major browser but more .. and whatever malware specifically target one browser won't harm the rest .. there is strength in numbers .. even when you're hiding in the minority.
But the biggest reason that browsers that are not IE are more secure is that they are constantly being developed on.
IE is dead in the water .. it's not being actively developed on.
That is why the need for CWShredder and programs like it exist, because microsoft is not doing enough to provide a safe computer-experience for users of their software.
Meanwhile malware programmers are ever busy ..
Use browsers whose developers are busy preventing the success of the malware programmers !
Don't choose a browser whose development team have fallen asleep on the job or have been assigned to other projects.
I can only so well understand why Merijn Bellekom is calling it quits .. it's hard standing up to malware as an individual programmer , especially when the company that should be helping, isn't.
Its wrong saying the saying that switching your browser away from IE is a cure-all solution , but it's equally wrong to give the impression that it wont matter ..
I recommend that people try out an alternative browser like Firefox , Opera , Safari , Shiira , K-Meleon , Camino , etc .. just for a month or two .. If you don't like it you can always change back. | |
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