[ Date Index ] [ Thread Index ] [ <= Previous by date / thread ] [ Next by date / thread => ]
On Sat, Apr 5, 2008 at 9:19 AM, Neil Williams wrote: > Most attacks will actually come via email and are targeted at the human, > not the OS. > > "Vulnerability exists between keyboard and chair." This is very true. I think that you can reduce you risk of being infected by some kind of malware by 95 percent by just applying common sense. Using Linux will then reduce this risk even further, for the simple fact that almost all malicious software (trojans etc.) are written for Windows. So even if you believe that that 'Dear customer' email genuinely came from your bank and that the attached .exe file is a really security patch, it will not harm you in any way because the file just won't run on your computer. Once Linux gets a reasonable market share, you can be sure there will be more malware aimed at Linux users. It doesn't matter here whether Linux is a more secure OS or not: as you can take screenshots of all your transactions with your bank and logs everything you enter into their website and sends all that information to crooks@xxxxxxxx, you can write a program that does all that for you; hence you can install such a program sent to you in an email believing it is a nice game, a useful plugin or even a security patch. Also be aware of possible vulnerabilities in cross-platform software such as Firefox, some of which are independent of the underlying OS. Thus you should always update to the latest secure version if such software. (There are cases, although they are rare, in which someone has hacked into the software's website so that users automatically downloaded an update which actually contained a trojan. It is good to be aware of the possibility of this, but I don't think one should get too paranoid over these things. If you want a 100% safe computer, just don't turn it on.) Martijn. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html