Full Disclosure mailing list archives
Re: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause
From: "David F. Skoll" <dfs () roaringpenguin com>
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2004 15:12:51 -0500 (EST)
On Thu, 15 Jan 2004, Exibar wrote:
Sorry to disagree with you, but telling people to simply not use windows and not use Outlook is like telling people not to ride in a car for the fear of getting into an accident.
No, it's telling them not to drive a Pinto when they could drive something safer.
So you're telling me that if I don't run Windows and I don't run Outlook that I'm 100% safe? Horsesh*t!
You are very much safer. Our mail server receives on the average day 70 viruses from cracked Windows machines, and none from cracked Linux machines. We still receive several Nimda hits a day, and none from cracked Linux machines.
If I install Linux and not Windows XP (for example) I'm safe? There isn't anything else that I have to do?
A default install of a modern Linux distro includes firewalling rules by default, and is fairly safe.
Why not EDUCATE the end-user on how to use Windows and Outlook safely?
Because it is impossible to use Windows safely; the very design of the operating system is flawed. This is not just my opinion; it's also that of Bruce Schneier and many other people, some of whom lost their jobs for speaking out.
BTW: Not running Anti-virus software is just plain stupid (I will not respond to any flames on this point, so don't bother).
Why? We have no machines that are susceptible to the viruses that are in the wild. We do, of course, drop .exe, .com, etc attachments on our mail server, but that's just to save disk space and stop annoying messages from filling our mailboxes.
Plain and simple. I'm very surprised that any company is able to run that way.
We have since 1999, and haven't had any problem. If you don't use Windows, you don't need anti-virus software. Regards, David. _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html
Current thread:
- Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause, (continued)
- Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause cdowns (Jan 15)
- Re: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause Ron DuFresne (Jan 15)
- Re: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause Tobias Weisserth (Jan 15)
- Re: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause Ron DuFresne (Jan 15)
- Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause David F. Skoll (Jan 15)
- Re: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause Ron DuFresne (Jan 15)
- Re: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause Mary Landesman (Jan 15)
- Re: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause Gregory A. Gilliss (Jan 15)
- Re: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause Ron DuFresne (Jan 15)
- Re: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause Valdis . Kletnieks (Jan 17)
- Re: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause Exibar (Jan 15)
- Re: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause David F. Skoll (Jan 15)
- Re: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause Exibar (Jan 15)
- Re: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause David F. Skoll (Jan 15)
- Re: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause Tobias Weisserth (Jan 15)
- Re: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause Exibar (Jan 16)
- Re: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause David F. Skoll (Jan 16)
- Re: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause Exibar (Jan 16)
- Re: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause David F. Skoll (Jan 16)
- Re: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause Exibar (Jan 16)
- Re: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause Tobias Weisserth (Jan 16)
- Re: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause David F. Skoll (Jan 16)
- Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause cdowns (Jan 15)