Posted on 01/06/2005 11:07:43 PM PST by Bush2000
Right! And think about people who let their kids and their kids' friends play on the 'family computer' semi-supervised - merrily skipping across the web picking up trojans, viruses, and BHOs galore.
I agree. It is the total faith in one operating system or piece of software or hardware that is so dangerous.
Oh, dear! Didn't mean for you to take it personal! Only wanted to hear your opinion.
I applaud your efforts to educate!
ROFL! I remember. So sad. (but why was I laughing?)
On a darker note with that. I was 'browsing' someone's computer on the kazaa network, like we just discussed, and found what certainly appeared to be child porn. I traced the address to an ISP in New Zealand. I was furious, but didn't know what to do, afraid of getting trouble myself if I gathered the evidence from their computer. I sent an email to their ISP notifying them of what I had found with the users IP address, and never heard anything else about it.
No problem. Given that the first post called Firefox users "gullible morons", I probably over-reacted. I saw "fools and idiots" and thought "Hey, wait a minute!" ;)
I personally don't use Firefox (Mozilla & Opera). I simply want people to make an informed choice.
Learning the hard way can be a painful experience.
Firefox: People who want no spyware and popups, plus faster surfing, wanted.
I don't care that it can be hacked.
Big deal. Anything can be hacked with the right tools.
This is news why?
Bush2000 is nothing if not analogous to a Molotov throwing hippie, and has all the debating skills of a Leftist. Just learn to ignore it.
The extensions are awesome. I can zoom in on any image in the browser itself, something I can't do with IE.
And, you know what?
1. No longer getting tons of spyware like when I was on IE.
2. Maybe 1 popup per hour compared to 50 in IE.
3. No viruses get through unliked in IE.
Yeah, hacker exploits will be discovered and abused.
I am not sitting here thinking Firefox is hack-proof. But, I know that the experience is much better. And, while not perfect, I am safer.
What you said. It's a cyber-jungle out there.
It's not that Firefox is perfect. It's just that IE is less so.
Oh yeah, but of course it isn't "hack proof", considering that even I can download the source code and look for exploits, (assuming this appliance operator knew what to do). Gates protects his source code, but what good has that really done?
I try to look at it from a hacker's point of view - what bragging rights to my fellow thugs, what claim to computer prowess, will I have when messing with Mozilla as compared to the latest and greatest "more secure" MS?
My instincts say there's going to be an onslaught against that new spyware beta MS just announced, by the way, so it'll be very interesting to see the reactions of Bush2000 and Quasimodo, etc. Stock up on the popcorn.
"The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) does note that IE's design makes it very difficult to secure. They note that "There are a number of significant vulnerabilities in technologies relating to the IE domain/zone security model,-
-local file system (Local Machine Zone) trust, the Dynamic HTML (DHTML) document object model (in particular, proprietary DHTML features), the HTML Help system, MIME type determination, the graphical user interface (GUI), and ActiveX... IE is integrated into Windows to such an extent that vulnerabilities in IE frequently provide an attacker significant access to the operating system."
please link to a post where someone who thinks opensource is a good idea says that it is invulnerable to attack. Levels of security are based more on the underlying architecture than on is popularity. If you think IE has better architecture then put up a post to back it up..
The simplistic advice you "wrote above as gospel" is incomplete and inadequate for security purposes. Keeping things updated is important - but it will not improve your security much if your basic design is flawed. To get truly good security, it is essential that you start with a well-designed foundation.
To put it in terms you can understand, let's consider the design issues of the "The Three Little Pigs". The first two little pigs were ignorant. They thought that design didn't matter, so they chose to built their houses from straw and sticks. Of course, we all know what happened to those foolish little pigs - they were eaten by the Big Bad Wolf!
But the third little pig was smart. He understood the importance of using a good design as the basis for a secure home, so he built his house from bricks. He survived! So the moral of the story is that to have "the closest you can get to safety", you must start with a good design.
It's that way with operating systems too. Microsoft Windows is a poorly-designed house of straw. Merely keeping a house of straw updated won't do much to improve your basic security.
Windows XP shipped with a known worm (known to MS anyways) for over six months before MS released a patch. And they never bothered to tell anyone before the patch was ready!
You make me laugh! To put it in terms you can easily understand, your brick house is an illusion and you are in bed with the Big Bad Wolf!
In a nutshell (a place you are probably quite comfortable), all of the houses are made of straw and believing your house is made of brick won't help you.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.