RE: Annoying pop-ups

[Paul Robertson <proberts () patriot net>]

On Fri, 1 Nov 2002, Gregory Austin wrote:

> <rant>
> The messenger service is *not* evil.  Letting unfiltered Internet traffic 
> hit your machine *is* stupid.  And if you spill hot coffee on yourself, 
> it's *your* fault you got burned, you clumsy dumb-ass.
> </rant>

<counter-rant>

Social engineering is probably the most dangerous attack vector out there.  
Certainly, it's the most effective one.  Handing out boiling hot cups of 
coffee to toddlers isn't a way to save on healthcare costs any more than 
handing out over-functional applications is a way to save on security 
costs, or lower risk and harm to users.

How many word processor users actually needed, say Word macros in 
documents?  Was it worth it to the rest of us who suffered through the 
macro virus hell years that a small percentage of users were accomodated 
in the default install of a ubiquitous product?

In my experience, very few admins actually use the windows messenger 
service, so in this case, it's relatively inexpensive to shoot the 
messenger, especially since those who do are quite capable of enabling it 
for their users.

Paul
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul D. Robertson      "My statements in this message are personal opinions
proberts () patriot net      which may have no basis whatsoever in fact."
probertson () trusecure com Director of Risk Assessment TruSecure Corporation

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