Re: Hacked again


"chocolatemalt" <me@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:me-DA4F61.10241225052009@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

They've been bad for a decade, but definitely getting worse over time.
If you're using Windows and you don't see yourself as extremely
vulnerable, you've got some reading to do. Check the archives at
http://isc.sans.org/ for choice stories. There have been TONS of
zero-day exploits for Windows, IE, and Office, and more recently for
Adobe Reader, Acrobat, and Flash... easily triggered via your browser.
Other products have exploits too but those are the worst. No amount of
being "not suckered" will protect you in those cases. You need an
anti-virus scanning everything being accessed -- preferably two since no
single AV software detects everything. If you have a solid external
firewall, NAT, a network intrusion detection system, and monitoring for
all that with alarms (far beyond the typical home user's reach) then you
are much more secure but *still* vulnerable due to the constant stream
of newly discovered exploits.

The best thing you can do to minimize the threat is to avoid MS whenever
possible. Use Firefox or Safari instead of IE. Don't use Office (Word,
Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook). And if possible, don't use Windows...
Install Linux, or buy a Mac. All of that involves time, money, learning
curves, and the other products aren't 100% secure either but you will
reduce your risk several orders of magnitude. It's a big step but
something worth considering. Most people won't make the switch until
they are completely owned -- e.g. malware sniffs your online bank
account passwords and one day you discover you've been cleaned out of
tens of thousands of dollars to an account in Russia or Ukraine, and
you'll never see that money again. Losing gear and gold on your WoW
account is small change compared to what can happen next.


the one main reason I stick to windows is that there are a lot of games and
programs that are NOT made for the Mac, I have a friend that use's a Mac for
all of his online stuff, but use's a windows for the rest.

he has tried to use the Mac program that makes the program "thinks" it's on
a windows machine, but it's just not the same.


thank you

Robert


/DND I told you so.





.

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