crashfourit wrote:
There's an old saying that goes like this: "It is better to be safe than
sorry." I would like to have a superb firewall and virus scanner with
the OS correctly configered. It just makes harder for something to go
wrong.
In some cases, it's kind of like the concept of mating: If you don't do
it, you can't have some of the risks that come with it. However, in all
honesty and seriousness, there are only a few things that you must do to
be absolutely safe, and they're easy, but they aren't something that
someone in today's world would probably be willing to do:
* Don't use the Internet. Unplug entirely from phone lines and
networks.
* Don't insert any media into your workstation, whatsoever,
including from "trusted" sources. See the Sony hooplah for
example.
Otherwise, if you're going to use things, use them smartly. You cannot
count on the "general" public doing that, however, which is part of the
reason for virus-scanners and firewalls and the like. I hide my machine
behind a firewalling NAT so that nobody can get into it, not because it
isn't properly configured, but because I'm not going to give someone the
chance to get in where there may be another exploit lurking. Think
about how many lines of code are in Windows XP and its related services
and applications. I'm willing to bet, with the steady stream of updates
ever-flowing from Microsoft, that there are more exploits then what is
known about, be they remote, local, DoS, bugs, whatever.
Regardless, no computer is truly safe: Even if the only network that
touches it is SneakerNet, people can get at it and do nasty things to
it. Precautions just make sense, and they should be available if it's
possible, and ultimately, the end-user should be able to exercise their
right to choose what firewall/anti-virus configuration suits them.
- Mike
--
Michael B. Trausch fd0man(a)gmail.com
AIM: MB Trausch Jabber: mtrausch(a)jabber.com