My computer's secure.
Posted on 12/01/2007 7:35:47 AM PST by george76
Hackers have newer methods to hack into your systems.
They are smart enough to detect security loop holes in your PC and enter through open ports,unencrypted Wi-Fi connections,malicious websites or internet servers.
It is better you check your PC periodically for invasions and protect your system to prevent pilfering and damage of data.
Detecting security loopholes.
Eliminating malicious programs.
Tracking hackers .
(Excerpt) Read more at techdune.com ...
tools that will rescue your PC when it is in danger.
My computer's secure.
Just out of curiosity, have you ever done a port scan on a MAC OS X ?
So are mine. Without paying either bloated company a cent.
why do they make virus scanners for osx then?
Me too - debian based ubuntu... :-)
Mine’s buttoned up tighter than my grandma’s girdle. I’m not sure how much of that is OS X, though — I have a hardware firewall built into my wireless router.
No problems here, no worries— I use Kubuntu Linux. Every once in a while I boot up to my XP drive, and I’m amazed at all of the security that I had set up, and all of the security updates that have to be done. Good riddance.
Because folks want to sell them and some folks want to buy them.
The only viruses I've seen reported in the wild on OS X are Word and Excel macro viruses. Only Microsoft could come up with the singular innovation of a cross-platform virus environment. If I got a lot of word or excel files sent to me as a matter of routine, I'd probably set something up to scan them.
The virus scanners also catch Windows viruses -- they can't run on a Mac, but a Mac user can still pass them on via uploads or mail attachments.
Lots of good tools on that page. Many of them are either Linux only, or best used with Linux. There are very few(useful) security tools that run on Windows.
But what protects our PC’s from XP???
And Microslop in general?
Have gone through major struggles ordering a new computer (Gateway fairly hefty) . . . getting Vista UNINCLUDED and XP-P included instead. COULD NOT GET them to include XP-64 as evidently they don’t offer it in their store! Sheesh. So now will have to add that cost.
Thankfully, Best Buy had a sale on RAM though I had to take a rain check on that.
Am not real impressed with XP or Microslop yet again at the moment.
Much appreciate this link and alert. Thanks big.
What are the useful tools form that site to run on Windows, besides the obvious ones like Spybot and Spyware Blaster? Thanks for any input.
Home PC security. The global warming of the tech industry.
A few of the good Windows security tools:
Cain&Abel, Netstumbler, Pwdump, nmap, ethereal(aka:wireshark not mentioned), Metasploit Framework, the sysinternal suite(not mentioned),tor, and nessus(not mentioned).
I'm sure there are many others that can be used in Windows. Those are just a few I could think of off the top of my head.
plenty of free open source virus scanners... no need to buy.
and there have been a couple non ms related viruses...
nothing major.
fwiw... I have my xp pc’s running virus scanners that are regularly updated and I have never been infected... I guess if you know what your doing, viruses are not much of an issue.
however, I do wonder why someone would pay SO much for the same Intel hardware just for OSX when you can get a “windows” pc with the same core2duo guts and put ubuntu on it....for half the price.
Marketing?
Oh, come on. I do hundreds of security updates on Linux machines every year. With a 2.6.22 kernel system I just installed there were around 70 to 80 security updates that came out within a week. The security updates are a good thing, not a bad thing, and if you aren't installing them you are vulnerable.
bump for publicity
AirSnort is my favorite Clinton-inspired network utility name.
And NetStumbler always reminds me of Teddy Kennedy.
“The box said Windows 98 or better, so I installed Linux.” :D
It's not SO much more -- Macs are competitively priced compared to comparable PCs. The problem is that the Mac product line doesn't contain anything comparable to the cheapest PCs. Mac desktops start at $599, laptops at about $1000.
I don't know about other folks, but I don't buy a box and then find software that runs on it -- I choose the tasks I want to do, choose the software to do it, and then buy the box that will run it. For me, the software I want to run includes OS X. For my money, it's the best OS available in terms of usabilitym speed, stability and security. The usability part is largely a matter of taste, and if all you're doing is web surging, e-mail, maybe a little light word processing, family photos and MP3s, any modern computer running any OS will do just fine. MPOh and my Mac runs XP just fine -- I have it set up in parallels desktop. Just about the only thing I use it for is to test Web pages I build in IE and Firefox on Windows, since that's how most users will see them.
I have a lot more faith in the ubuntu crowd that official updates are not going to trash my system than I do with MS and the junk they push out to beta testers...I mean users. But of course, I don't have blind faith in anyone, ubuntu nor my hard disk, hence regular backups...
I was, perhaps, not clear. I meant security updates for the many security programs that I installed to protect XP. I wasn’t referring the XP security updates themselves.
599? you referring to he mac mini?... I can get a comparable XP equipped pc that undoubtably doesn’t look as cool, but does browses the web, designs webpages (notepad rocks), checks email, etc.. etc ... for 299.99 at my local bb oh... and it will be in portable laptop form.
I can even dual boot ubuntu on it so I can tell people that I dual boot and they’ll think I’m cool.
That's my take too. For decades I can say that for every (rare) confirmed genuine cyber attack, I've had say, a hundred false positives.
Some of us did have trouble with the “virtual kernel updates” that the French Linux distribution came out with recently. That seems like a foolish thing to me so I disabled it.
I also do regular backups to another drive and to tape. There’s something about being a system administrator for all those years that stays with you. I can’t recall actually losing anything due to not being backed up in all those years (unless it was data created in the minutes just before a disk was lost), but I restored backups hundreds of times.
I've noticed that in the past month, sites tell me I need to upgrade or install my Adobe Flash. I've done it several times, but it still isn't there.
I'm stumped. I'm also stupid!
Have you tried to remove it all, then install new from scratch ?
Do you have Adobe Reader 8 ?
Yes, I am. Realistically, it's more like $700, all told, because you're gonna want to max out the ram at 2GB.
I can get a comparable XP equipped pc that undoubtably doesn’t look as cool, but does browses the web, designs webpages (notepad rocks), checks email, etc.. etc ... for 299.99 at my local bb oh... and it will be in portable laptop form.
Yup. You can, and more power to ya. Every machine we buy involves a calculus of price, performance, ease of use, elegance, reliability, longevity, enjoyability, and so on.
All over the country there are folks driving a Hyundai or a Saturn or a Dodge Neon or a Ford Focus who think BMW drivers are all, without exception, idiots. The BMW drivers are by and large happy with teir purchases and having tons of fun.
I drive a 1999 Chrysler Sebring convertible. I bought it used for about $13K in 2002. I could have gotten a much cheaper vehicle to get me from point A to point B, but I like my car. I enjoy sitting in its leather seat behind its adjustable steering wheel. After about 15 years of driving old POS cars, adjusting my driving habits to their poor performance and doing a lot of DIY repairs and maintenance, I splurged on a car that I would actually enjoy. I've taken my Sebring up and down the Eastern seaboard, on many meandering drives, sometimes as much as 2,000 miles in a week. It's a comfy, happy place.
I treat computers the same way. If I'm going to spend hour after hour, day upon day, with my spreading middle-aged ass in the same spot, I want a comfortable chair, a sturdy desk at the proper height, good lighting, and a computer that fees comfortable and does what I want the way I want it. The Mac does that for me. If I bought a computer that cost a few bucks less and griped my ass every day, tht would be a classic case of false economy.
I don't have to settle for the cheapest option any more, and my time and comfort have value to me. In strictly economic terms, I'm more productive when I'm happy and comfy. I prefer to get more out of each hour rather than to put in more hours. So I prefer to do my job with the best tools. The tools that suit me. My employer and my customers get better work and more bang for the buck that way, and I get less stress. Win-win-win.
I know it's not new, but I LedOL anyway.
You need to bookmark this one!
If you are running XP, go to this address:
http://download.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/current/licensing/win/install_flash_player_active_x.msi
Download the msi file to your desktop or wherever, and double click it to run.
Test installation at http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/about/
to make sure that you have the current version, which at the moment is 9,0,45,0.
It should say 9,0,47,0.
Same reason they're made for Linux computers, as a courtesy to Microsoft machines. Wouldn't be very sporting to pass along malware to a Windows machine that you're communicating with, now would it?
i run AVG FREE for Linux, and it found a Windows Virus on my user account last week. Located the file and nuked it (no registry to worry about, no worries about it affecting my system).
Bump for later read ...
The masses have chosen Windows, so Windows is the target of choice for hackers.
It's funny to see people with superiority-complexes built on buying obscure operating systems.
A web search will lead you to their download page.
Whether OS X is structurally secure or just below the radar is one of the great Permanent Floating Flamewars. I don’t intend to engage in that.
I will, however, note that Everest was a pretty obscure mountain until some dude got to the top of it. Hackers, the ones who aren’t just paid agents of spam mills, are all about the bragging rights — when they get together, in person or in chat, they like to whip ‘em out and measure.
Are you going to tell me that none of these sad little geeks are trying to craft a Mac virus? Seriously? Windows viruses are something any script kiddie with updated tools can pull off. No prestige. No bragging rights. It’s like climbing to the top of the driveway to claim the bounty of the mailbox.
A Mac virus? You could be the first. Climb that mountain, bust that cherry, plant your flag. Don’t tell me that doesn’t appeal to hackers, ‘cause I won’t buy it. Apple has spent the last five years with its thumbs in its ears and its fingers waggling, just daring hackers to come and get ‘em.
It’s not just a dare, it’s a double-dog-dare. And no one has yet met the challenge. You got something? Bring it.
I just looked up what you can get for $299 in a laptop, and it's nowhere near the Mac mini specs in hardware or software.
ya.. it’s a laptop...
core duo vs. celeron... blah, for browsing the web/email/posting on fr.... it’ll work just fine, plus it’ portable and cheaper.
bump...for my fellow XP loyalists
Amen to that.
Getting a new Gateway tower . . .FX530B
INTEL CORE 2 QUAD CPU Q6600
. . . Insisted they give it to me with XP-P instead of VISTA 32 BIT.
They said they had no XP-P 64 BIT to load it with. So, will likely get it set up and going and then upgrade to XP-P 64 BIT.
My concern is what ANTIVIRUS etc. to use.
Evidently SYSTEM MECH 7 is not viable
I refuse to let Norton near any of my systems ever again.
Not thrilled with McAffee.
Is there anything solid I could use?
I am not real keen on Microslop’s FIX AND PROTECT EVERYTHING software—ONE CARE or whatever it’s called . . . I don’t trust Microslop any further than I could throw Seattle.
Am planning to load UBUNTU soonish, too. BTW, what’s the difference between UBUNTU AND KUBUNTU? I read the sites for each and still couldn’t discern what the big difference was.
Ping to the above post, please.
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