Full Disclosure mailing list archives
Re: Religion... was RE: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause
From: "David F. Skoll" <dfs () roaringpenguin com>
Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2004 11:04:27 -0500 (EST)
On Sun, 18 Jan 2004, Wes Noonan wrote:
(I know that someone recently released code to do a "user-space" exec, so mounting /tmp noexec is not 100% foolproof, but it's pretty good protection.)
Well then, IMO you might want to invest in virus protection.
Why? Name one virus for Linux that AV software would have protected against, that a noexec /tmp wouldn't have. (It's hard enough to name a Linux virus; it's impossible to name a virus that meets the latter conditions.)
I'm curious, why is your solution which is not 100% foolproof "pretty good protection", but installing virus protection which is not 100% foolproof is a sham?
Because mounting /tmp noexec costs me nothing, whereas buying AV software costs money.
Really, it seems to me that a number of the "anti-virus scan" positions (and indeed most of the anti-microsoft, ant-personal firewall, etc positions) seem to have little substance beyond "I don't want to spend money".
That's a good enough reason for me. :-) I'm a tried-and-true capitalist, and anything legal that decreases the cost of production is something that will help my business, and something I'll embrace. We're a 7-person shop with a budget of $0 for software. I'd love to see a Microsoft shop with a similar software budget. Why should I spend money, time and energy trying to secure a basically un-securable system, when I can not spend money, spend a whole lot less time and energy, and have a more secure system? One of the reasons Microsoft has such a terrible security record is that it's a monopoly. All the people who have posted "ah, yes, but it's impractical to switch" are perpetuating insecure software. Securing software costs a lot of money; if Microsoft knows it won't lose market share even if it doesn't bother securing its software, what possible motivation would it have to secure the software? (As a tried-and-true capitalist, *I* certainly wouldn't spend money securing software in that situation.) So unless you investigate alternative systems seriously, you're just ensuring a monopoly situation, which guarantees bad software. Complacency and defeatism have no place in the fight to secure our computers. -- David. _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html
Current thread:
- Re: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause, (continued)
- 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 Bruce Ediger (Jan 17)
- 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 Tobias Weisserth (Jan 17)
- RE: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause Wes Noonan (Jan 16)
- RE: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause Ron DuFresne (Jan 16)
- RE: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause Ron DuFresne (Jan 16)
- RE: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause David F. Skoll (Jan 18)
- Religion... was RE: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause Wes Noonan (Jan 18)
- Re: Religion... was RE: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause David F. Skoll (Jan 18)
- RE: Religion... was RE: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause Wes Noonan (Jan 18)
- Re: Religion... was RE: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause Jeremiah Cornelius (Jan 18)
- RE: Religion... was RE: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause Wes Noonan (Jan 18)
- RE: Religion... was RE: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause David F. Skoll (Jan 18)
- RE: Religion... was RE: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause Wes Noonan (Jan 18)
- RE: Religion... was RE: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause David F. Skoll (Jan 18)
- RE: Religion... was RE: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause Wes Noonan (Jan 18)
- RE: Religion... was RE: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause David F. Skoll (Jan 18)
- RE: Religion... was RE: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause Wes Noonan (Jan 18)
- RE: Religion... was RE: Re: January 15 is Personal Firewall Day, help the cause David F. Skoll (Jan 18)