Text 12926, 191 rader
Skriven 2009-07-12 23:08:09 av Ed Hulett (1:123/789.0)
  Kommentar till text 12924 av Ross Cassell (1:123/456)
Ärende: Food For Thought
========================
Ross Cassell -> Ed Hulett wrote:
 RC> Hello Ed!

 RC> 12 Jul 09 20:31, you wrote to me:

 RC>>> Well from Symantecs perspective, it would have to be something
 RC>>> that guarantees a good return on their investment. But since
 RC>>> going to the Intel platform, Mac has picked up market share,
 RC>>> which in turn means more targets worth the while of the malware
 RC>>> authors.

 EH>> Malware authors look at M$ as all that is wrong with the west and the
 EH>> US.

 RC> and to think they are using our Capitalistic system by being capitalists
 RC> themselves..

The love of money...

 RC> Microsoft is many things, but they marketted better, regardless if they
 RC> stole or acquired...

I'm not the one who looks at them as evil.

 RC> Look how long it took to strip away AT&T's monopoly....

And?

 RC> Had Apple had an IQ in the marketting department, no MS dominance.

Apple's problem was that they wanted (and still want) to control the
architecture. If they had used IBM's marketing model, they would have at least
half of the market now.

 RC> Those Apple Versus Windows commercials we have seen over the past couple
 RC> of years, they probably spent more on those than they did on advertising
 RC> over the past 25-30 years.

Right... the "I'm a PC" and "I'm an Apple" idiocy.

 RC>>> Since most of the malware today is geared towards the authors
 RC>>> making money, there just isnt enough Linux Boxes out there to
 RC>>> make it worth their time when contrasted to Windows..

 EH>> Also, their chance of making money off of users of open-source
 EH>> software is nil.

 RC> You are assuming that the user of said machine would be the extorted
 RC> victim.. :)

Linux and open source users are usually a bit more clued than the average M$
user or even Apple user. They keep their machines up to date and secure.

 RC> While there is malware out there for windows that will encrypt important
 RC> documents and then ransom it or Rogue Security Apps that ask for a
 RC> registration fee (Which amounts to buying a lemon), most boxes end up
 RC> being zombies that spew spam or are made to do click fraud.

I know this.

 RC> Many of these people dont know they are infected. See my message to Jeff
 RC> Binkley, many of these people probably discovered their system trashed
 RC> this past Friday.

Hence, my comment above.

 RC>>> Linux, even with the great inroads Ubuntu has made, is not a
 RC>>> operating system friendly enough for newbies (lets not look at it
 RC>>> from our eyes) and when a newbie goes to buy a computer, guess
 RC>>> what they get..

 EH>> Dell, Acer and a few others offer Linux boxes. To a total noob, Linux
 EH>> doesn't pose as much difficulty as it used to. Most people use their
 EH>> computer to surf the web, do email, and shop online. A computer
 EH>> running any flavor of Linux and running X (with your choice of WM) is
 EH>> just as easy as using a M$ box and much more secure.

 RC> It still isnt where it needs to be.. Linux is still a geeks OS.

And there are those who would like to keep it that way. They seem to think
things would be better in obscurity.

 RC>>> I deal with the public and most of them think point and click is
 RC>>> all you need and none of them have vaccinated themselves from
 RC>>> social engineering tricks.

 EH>> A Linux box setup with Gnome, KDE or any other WM can point and click
 EH>> better and safer than a Windoze box.

 RC> Please no KDE, thats bloat.

Have you seen KDE 4?

 RC> However, people bitched and bellyached about Vista's UAC prompt and all
 RC> it did was ask for permission to install programs and make system
 RC> setting changes, ie Continue Or Cancel. Imagine the same mentality when
 RC> one does something similiar and they are prompted for the root password
 RC> or told to Sudo?

Never happen.

 RC>>> When we sell computers, we offer services to optimize them,
 RC>>> remove the trialcrap and put AV software on it. Sold a laptop to
 RC>>> a guy, performed the service and sent him on his way. Three days
 RC>>> later he was back, with a Rogue Security Software application on
 RC>>> his system. He was bitching up a storm, until I checked the logs
 RC>>> of the AV software we put on and discovered that he allowed it in
 RC>>> when the AV software warned him.

 EH>> And that is why the software has logs.

 RC> Well yeah, but this story was more to relate to you the stupidity or
 RC> ignorance of todays computer user.

I know all about it. I have worked in the computer industry for years. Tomorrow
I have to go rescue a friend's notebook.

 RC>>> Of course you have other people whom surf to a website:

 RC>>> * See a Banner ad that says, "you are our 1 millionth visitor and
 RC>>> won a laptop, click here to claim your prize"

 EH>> LOL! Yep, but if they are on a Linux box it doesn't cause as much
 EH>> damage.

 RC> At best a Linux user using Firefox or a Gecko based browser crashed on
 RC> them with no harm done to the underlying OS.

Yep.

 RC>>> But the problem with open source in this area is that the source
 RC>>> code is available to others to see where the weaknesses might be
 RC>>> or to see what was done to correct an earlier weakness. But like
 RC>>> I said, it will take a bigger gain in market share for Linux to
 RC>>> be a big enough target for todays crop of malware authors.

 EH>> I get updates on a daily basis.

 RC> As do I.

I would hope so.

 RC> Ubuntu gives me that perty looking orange icon..

LinuxMint has a cute little padlock that is open when there are updates
awaiting.

 RC>>> Just keep it patched and use strong passwords..

 EH>> With M$ that doesn't work as well as it does with *nix.

 RC> I was referring to NIX when I made that statement.. :-)

Uh huh...

 RC> Strong passwords for anything is good policy.

And then the user prints their password on a label and pastes it to the
monitor. :-\

 RC> With Windows...

Keep them shut. :-)

 RC> Keep it updated.

It still doesn't update as quickly as Linux does.

 RC> Use Good AV software and keep it updated.

And not Norton!

 RC> Dont be gullible on every social engineering trick thrown at you.

If only people would be so smart.

Ed

-- 
"The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is
to fill the world with fools." --Herbert Spencer

"The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under
the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale."
 --Thomas Jefferson

Linux User# 416016
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