RE: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause

["Bill Royds" <full-disclosure () royds net>]

National Smokeout Day has been very successful in getting people to quit
smoking for those wanting to quit smoking. It is not perfect because smoking
is an addiction and only stupid people smoke anyway these days so it is hard
to persuade them to stop.

Personal Firewall Day is only one of many possible approaches to improving
security on home machines. Too many people on this list have binary minds.
Either it works perfectly or it doesn't work at all. This may be OK for
logic circuits,but it is not valid for humans and computer users are human
not mechanical.
   Microsoft sells lots of software for two main reasons:
1/ It is installed on machines when delivered (which is why they were
convicted of being a monopoly in desktops).
2/ Because most desktops run Windows, most software aimed at desktops runs
only on Windows.

  So you are not going to get MS off the desktop. How else are you going to
protect the Internet and other computers from these users. A personal
firewall is much better than closing your eyes and saying "run Linux, run
Linux". A separate firewall between the modem and the box is probably better
and they don't cost that much (about $50-$100) and they can act as a switch
for a home network as well.
 

-----Original Message-----
From: full-disclosure-admin () lists netsys com
[mailto:full-disclosure-admin () lists netsys com] On Behalf Of cdowns
Sent: January 15, 2004 11:57 AM
To: tlarholm () pivx com
Cc: bugtraq () securityfocus com; ntbugtraq () listserv ntbugtraq com;
full-disclosure () lists netsys com
Subject: [Full-disclosure] Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the
cause

Out of curiousity, you cant get people to stop smoking with the 
"National Smokeout Day" what makes anyone think that this would do 
anything ?

Most people consider thier computer the equivelent of a hammer ( a tool 
), in the toolbox at 4:00 pm sharp until they start thier next workday.

maybe im wrong, I wish the best on this.

~!>D

tlarholm () pivx com wrote:

> I just wanted to remind everybody that tomorrow is Personal Firewall Day.
>
> http://www.personalfirewallday.org/
>
> The Personal Firewall Day is a campaign designed to raise awareness about
the dangers we face without a personal firewall. Security experts such as
yourself are encouraged to use the occasion of Personal Firewall Day to
share your expertise and advice with your lesser technologically skilled
friends and family, and help get them secured by installing a personal
firewall - this could be as simple as helping them turn on the XP firewall.
Direct them to the website where they can learn more about personal
firewalls and other layers of protection.
> Compromised end-user machines affect us all and the Internet as a whole
when they are used as zombies for DDoS networks or proxies by criminal
spammers, and your personal effort can help remedy this.
> PFD is a direct result of the discussions that originated from the
NTBugtraq Retreat '03, and would not have been possible without the
dedication and hard work put into the project by Paul Robertson, director of
risk assessment with TruSecure and the original proponent of the idea.
> Regards 
> Thor Larholm 
> Senior Security Researcher 
> PivX Solutions 
> 24 Corporate Plaza #180 
> Newport Beach, CA 92660 
> http://www.pivx.com 
> thor () pivx com 
> 949-231-8496 
> PivX defines "Proactive Threat Mitigation". Get a FREE Beta Version of
Qwik-Fix 
> <http://www.qwik-fix.net> 
>
>  

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