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To: ReignOfError
Oh geeez.

The problems (and there were several small, unrelated problems that combined to make the vulnerability) that allowed the Morris Worm to spread have all been fixed years ago.

For instance, no modern Unix variant has shipped with fingerd running by default for at least 5 years.

One might as well scream that cars are DEADLY because of those Pinto gas tanks.

On the other hand, 90% of all spam is generated by owned Windows boxes. Microsoft Windows is the cause of most spam.

This is because of two basic problems. A) Windows runs it services as the system user (so and owned service like IE can own the whole box) and B) Microsoft has marketed Windows by saying that a Windows desktop doesn't need an admin, yet there are a multitude of admin tasks that need to be completed regularly on a Windows desktop to ensure that it's not owned.

The first is a systemic design flaw. The second is just dishonesty.

The result is billions of dollars in losses for businesses and individuals due to spam.

57 posted on 01/08/2007 2:52:00 AM PST by Knitebane (Happily Microsoft free since 1999.)
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To: Knitebane
The problems (and there were several small, unrelated problems that combined to make the vulnerability) that allowed the Morris Worm to spread have all been fixed years ago.

Oh, I certainly didn't mean to imply anything about current vulnerabilities; quite the opposite, in fact. I was backing up the statement that hackers have been banging on Unix machines for a very long time.

This is because of two basic problems. A) Windows runs it services as the system user (so and owned service like IE can own the whole box) and B) Microsoft has marketed Windows by saying that a Windows desktop doesn't need an admin, yet there are a multitude of admin tasks that need to be completed regularly on a Windows desktop to ensure that it's not owned.

More fundamentally, DOS/Windows was not built from the ground up as a multiuser, networked OS; Unix was.

58 posted on 01/08/2007 3:01:38 AM PST by ReignOfError
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