Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

loki wrote:wow, I thought we where talking about desktops, and the point about linux and unix being more secure because of the not running as root thing, that is just training and the point that I am trying to make. Talking about apache is a totally different beast that isn't an OS. Everyone loves to bash Microsoft, I'm not a M$ fanboy by any means but I do look at all OSs without bias, Windows is a damn good OS, so are lots of linux distros and OSX, they all have their ups and downs.

The point is you stated that the only reason linux and Mac aren't compromised as much is because of usage share. I'm proving that that is completely wrong by using the server market as an example, the same principle applies on the desktop, the point is that more common does NOT equate to more compromises.

It's a common argument used by MS fans, but it simply isn't true. Correlation does not equal Causation. You're trying to prove that because the most common OS is also the most attacked that it must be one the cause of the other, In fact, even if apple were suddenly to surpass microsoft in market share, I can guarantee you that MS would still have more exploits.

Impalator: did you get your computer swept?

mararmeisto wrote:Impalator: did you get your computer swept?

Who cares?

Sorry guys,

I have been out and about a few days.... no pepper-spray or inkjet encounters as of late...

The thing is, it is my work laptop that I sometimes use to google something that comes to mind during work etc.... And being the good corporate citizen I am (and the particularly bad computer user), I don't feel that comfortable to sweep, install, run, download anti-malware, spy-sweeper stuff etc. that is not in a way endorsed or encouraged by my IT department (call me a chicken... but just not that eager to get "what the heck" emails from IT...). Since we are a regional office in Vancouver and our IT department is in Toronto, we have a guy come in every two weeks or so to do some maintenance and install updates etc.

He will be in this coming Monday and I will tell him about my experience and what you guys have suggested on the forum... he'll (hopefully) figure something out...

In any case - thanks so much for all your feedback... it's great to know that you guys are not just Deli-fan's but also computer geeks (hope I didn't offend anybody by this...) - if I had something with my personal laptop, I wouldn't hesitate a second to follow your suggestions.

Cheers and thanks again!
Chris

impalator wrote:Sorry guys,

I have been out and about a few days.... no pepper-spray or inkjet encounters as of late...

The thing is, it is my work laptop that I sometimes use to google something that comes to mind during work etc.... And being the good corporate citizen I am (and the particularly bad computer user), I don't feel that comfortable to sweep, install, run, download anti-malware, spy-sweeper stuff etc. that is not in a way endorsed or encouraged by my IT department (call me a chicken... but just not that eager to get "what the heck" emails from IT...). Since we are a regional office in Vancouver and our IT department is in Toronto, we have a guy come in every two weeks or so to do some maintenance and install updates etc.

He will be in this coming Monday and I will tell him about my experience and what you guys have suggested on the forum... he'll (hopefully) figure something out...

In any case - thanks so much for all your feedback... it's great to know that you guys are not just Deli-fan's but also computer geeks (hope I didn't offend anybody by this...) - if I had something with my personal laptop, I wouldn't hesitate a second to follow your suggestions.

Cheers and thanks again!
Chris

If you get a good IT guy (And I hope you do!) ask him about using Firefox with Adblock and Flashblock instead of I.E. if your company allows it, as this will greatly decrease your attack profile.

You might also want to inquire about what remote support can be offered to deal with the sort of virus/spyware issues you are having. In most cases I don't have to go onsite (I do similar work for a living) remotely from my desk here in Victoria.

The biggest sources of an attack on a windows desktop machine I have seen are:

1) Worms from then net if you don't have a firewall (Have a good firewall at the router, and on your own machine)
2) Viruses that get opened in Outlook as attachments
3) clicking on the wrong things in I.E.
4) Running pirated software or downloads

And finally, you will find that over time, unless you really clean out the crud, many windows installations simply self-destruct over time. :p

Finally, I don't take offense to being called a "geek". That is a compliment! Being called a "nerd" however is something different.

Mr. Flibble wrote:If you get a good IT guy (And I hope you do!) ask him about using Firefox with Adblock and Flashblock instead of I.E. if your company allows it, as this will greatly decrease your attack profile.

I prefer Chrome myself, and there are adblock extensions for it as well.

loki wrote:

Mr. Flibble wrote:If you get a good IT guy (And I hope you do!) ask him about using Firefox with Adblock and Flashblock instead of I.E. if your company allows it, as this will greatly decrease your attack profile.

I prefer Chrome myself, and there are adblock extensions for it as well.

Chrome is quite good as well (I am using it now actually)! I find it fast and light. Only problem is I find it has fewer of the "required" plugins that I use on a regular basis. :p

But anything other than Internet Explorer is always a safer choice because the browser is not integrated directly into the OS.