Microsoft Stockholder? Take Stock in This...
,----[ Quote ]
| While we are passing along the subject of anti-virus and spyware, let me ask
| you this. While MS does offer a somewhat crippled product to protect Windows,
| they push me toward a subscription purchase to get the full monty. Why am I
| being cornered into purchasing a "fix" for a problem Microsoft created?
| Shouldn't the full application be offered as part of Windows? Let me ask you
| this as well. Why should I purchase and use a product that necessitates I
| purchase and use another product in order for the first product to work the
| way it is supposed to?
|
| Six out of ten tech support calls I've taken that deal with low performance
| computers are resolved by either removing or repairing the anti-virus
| software. It often has the same effect on your system that a boat anchor has
| on a paddle boat.
|
| If you run Windows, you most certainly are expected to knuckle-under to the
| 90 day trial software from Norton or Macaffee and purchase the 1 year
| subscription. That is unless you are hounded by Microsoft's own One Care to
| protect you. Do you think that the 90 day period is arbitrary? They wait
| until you are comfortable with the software and as 90 days approaches,
| they "warn" you that unless you purchase the entire year of "protection",
| your computer will be vulnerable. The pop-ups become more frequent and dire
| as the 90 day limit approaches. As you can see from the above link, your
| Windows computer is vulnerable even with said "protection". Welcome to the
| world that is Windows.
`----
http://linuxlock.blogspot.com/2008/05/microsoft-stockholder-take-stock-in.html
Pay up or become part of the 320,000,000-PC zombies fleet. You'll probably
become one either way because AV software is no longer effective (Schneier
publicly calls it "snake oil" now).
Also new:
Hackers compromise Red Cross earthquake relief site
,----[ Quote ]
| Unfortunately for victims of the recent Sichuan earthquake, this is exactly
| what appears to have happened to the Chinese branch of the Red Cross. From
| the reports, it appears that a Chinese hacker or group of hackers was able to
| gain access to the portion of the Red Cross site that linked to the accounts
| being used to collect donations from the public. In order to siphon some of
| these funds off for themselves, six fraudulent accounts at four different
| banks were opened under three different name
`----
http://www.linuxworld.com.au/index.php?id=1012342877&rid=-50
They use Windows on the face of it (ASP redirects shows up, pointing to the
main site). Main page reveals that they use Microsoft, but with Akamai:
http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://www.redcross.org
Spain arrests 'prolific' hackers
,----[ Quote ]
| The hackers, who include two 16-year-olds, are accused of disrupting
| government websites in the United States, Asia and Latin America.
|
| Police say they co-ordinated attacks over the internet and hacked into 21,000
web pages over two years.
`----
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7406260.stm
Last week:
Vista security credentials tarnished in malware survey
,----[ Quote ]
| "[Vista]has been hailed by Microsoft as the most secure version of Windows to
| date. However, recent research conducted with statistics from over 1.4
| million computers within the ThreatFire community has shown that Windows
| Vista is more susceptible to malware than the eight year old Windows 2000
| operating system, and only 37 per cent more secure than Windows XP," said
| Simon Clausen, chief exec at PC Tools.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/09/win_malware_survey/
Recent:
Massive Attack: Half A Million Microsoft-Powered Sites Hit With SQL Injection
,----[ Quote ]
| A new SQL injection attack aimed at Microsoft IIS web servers has hit some
| 500,000 websites, including the United Nations, UK Government sites and the
| U.S. Department of Homeland Security. While the attack is not Microsoft's
| fault, it is unique to the company's IIS server.
`----
http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2008/04/microsoft-datab.html
Schneier: Lots of Security Software Is 'snake Oil'
,----[ Quote ]
| IDG News Service: So what do you think is the biggest threat right now?
|
| Schneier: Crime.
|
| IDG News Service: So how do you fix it? It's expensive to investigate, it's
| cross-jurisdictional.
|
| Schneier: It might not be fixable. A lot of [the solution] is going to be
| making the things that criminals are going after harder to get. You're not
| going to stop the criminals.
`----
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/144938/schneier_lots_of_security_software_is_snake_oil.html
Bots rule in cyberspace
,----[ Quote ]
| USA TODAY REPORTS that on an average day, 40 per cent of the 800 million
| computers connected to the Internet are bots used to send out spam, viruses
| and to mine for sensitive personal data.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/03/17/bots-rule-cyberspace
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2008-03-16-computer-botnets_N.htm
The Dirty Secret Behind 1,000,000 Viruses
,----[ Quote ]
| But there's something missing in this paragraph – and, indeed, in the whole
| story: it's the word “Windows”. This is the dirty secret behind viruses: they
| are overwhelmingly found on Windows systems. The huge, global cost of viruses
| is just one of the hidden extra fees that we all, collectively, must pay when
| others use Microsoft Windows. Pity Microsoft doesn't use some of its
| extensive cash holdings to compensate victims of its poor coding.
|
| Now, of course, if all the world used GNU/Linux, that wouldn't mean that
| viruses would cease to exist: the focus of malware would shift, and viruses
| would become more common for that system too. But you can bet they'd be far
| harder to write, and that there would be far less than a million.
`----
http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolbox/open-source/blogs/index.cfm?blogid=14&entryid=685
Trend, Sophos and McAfee flunk Vista SP1 anti-virus tests
,----[ Quote ]
| Top tier anti-virus vendors including McAfee, Trend Micro, and Sophos all
| failed to secure Windows Vista SP1 in recent independent tests.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/03/vista_sp1_av_tests/
Related:
Does antivirus have a future?
,----[ Quote
| Peter Gutmann, a researcher at the University of Auckland who presented the
| results of a study of the commercial market for malware at August's Defcon,
| estimates that a good virus programmer can make as much as $200,000 a year
| (here, a 660KB PDF). Alan Cox, an open-source security researcher, points out
| some additional possibilities. One is malware designed to sit under today's
| virtual machines. A proof-of-concept paper proposing such an attack, called
| Subvirt (PDF), appeared last year, written by three researchers from
| Microsoft and two from the University of Michigan. A presentation at last
| year's Black Hat security conference from Joanna Rutkowska, a researcher at
| Coseinc, a Singapore-based security company, covered a much leaner attack she
| called Blue Pill, which targets the virtualisation built into Windows Vista
| and into current processors from both AMD and Intel.
`----
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/sep/20/guardianweeklytechnologysection.spam
Is an antivirus gap looming?
,----[ Quote ]
| The failure of antivirus companies to adapt to the dramatic malware
| appearance rates in 2007 tells us there's time for a change and there's room
| for a new class of tools. "AV is dead" is the battle cry of a new industry
| analyst report. Antivirus companies may not be going the way of the dodo, but
| to many customers, the concept of antivirus as the last line of defense has
| been thrown out the window. It's time for a better approach, one that can
| keep up and really defend networks.
`----
http://news.com.com/2010-7348_3-6195322.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-20&subj=news
Predicting the demise of antivirus apps
,----[ Quote ]
| "It's the beginning of the end for antivirus," says Robin Bloor, partner
| at consulting firm Hurwitz & Associates, who adds he began his
| "antivirus is dead" campaign a year ago and feels even more strongly
| about it today. "I'm going to keep beating this drum. The approach
| antivirus vendors take is completely wrong. The criminals working to
| release these viruses against computer users are testing against
| antivirus software. They know what works and how to create variants."
`----
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/mgmt/0047A206FF40A92ECC2572C3000FD867
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