Inviting malware

You buy a new computer, connect in to the internet and
proceed to download your choice of ant-virus software,
firewall, and possibly other security-enhancing stuff.
But in the half-hour or more it takes to do all that, your pc is
wide open, and with the frequency of probing attacks these
days, a variety of undesirable agents could be installed and
hidden before the anti-malware gets going.
So why don't computer retailers offer machines with anti-malware
stuff already installed ?

Jim Hawkins

Jim Hawkins

"Jim Hawkins" <> writes:

> You buy a new computer, connect in to the internet and
> proceed to download your choice of ant-virus software,
> firewall, and possibly other security-enhancing stuff.
> But in the half-hour or more it takes to do all that, your pc is
> wide open, and with the frequency of probing attacks these
> days, a variety of undesirable agents could be installed and
> hidden before the anti-malware gets going.
> So why don't computer retailers offer machines with anti-malware
> stuff already installed ?

Are you saying you managed to find a retailer that didn't preload
"trial" versions of Norton or McAfee's bloated security suites on?

It's never been a better time to be behind some sort of network level
appliance when deploying a new computer, particularly with this doozie
known as
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sec.../ms08-001.mspx


--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

Todd H.

Jim Hawkins wrote:

> You buy a new computer, connect in to the internet and
> proceed to download your choice of ant-virus software,
> firewall, and possibly other security-enhancing stuff.
> But in the half-hour or more it takes to do all that, your pc is
> wide open, and with the frequency of probing attacks these
> days, a variety of undesirable agents could be installed and
> hidden before the anti-malware gets going.


And even if it would come up earlier, it couldn't fix the consequence of
such a horribly stupid mistake of connecting a machine the internet without
prior host configuration.

It can't fix user stupidity either. Now you're abusing Outlook Express as a
newsreader, which is an open invitation for malware.

> So why don't computer retailers offer machines with anti-malware
> stuff already installed ?


They do, and that's a problem on its own.

Sebastian G.

"Sebastian G." <> wrote in message
news:...
>
>
> It can't fix user stupidity either. Now you're abusing Outlook Express as
> a newsreader, which is an open invitation for malware.
>

How ought I to read the newsgroups then ?

Jim Hawkins

Jim Hawkins

From: "Jim Hawkins" <>


| How ought I to read the newsgroups then ?
|
| Jim Hawkins
|

His statements are overblown.
OE has vulnerabilities but nothing major to worry about.

--
Dave
http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html
Multi-AV - http://www.pctipp.ch/downloads/dl/35905.asp

David H. Lipman

"Jim Hawkins" <> writes:

> "Sebastian G." <> wrote in message
> news:...
> >
> >
> > It can't fix user stupidity either. Now you're abusing Outlook
> > Express as a newsreader, which is an open invitation for malware.
> >
>
> How ought I to read the newsgroups then ?

Hi Jim,

NNTP newsreading clients exist in many forms. One other popular one
is Mozilla Seamonkey, which is a suite that includes a newsreader.
Another popular one is XNews:
http://xnews.newsguy.com/

Forte Agent was popular at one time. I don't use a gui newsreader
myself, but text mode is definitely not for everyone, so I won't
attempt to steer you there.

The group news.software.readers discusses such software.

Best Regards,
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

Todd H.

Todd H. wrote:
> "Jim Hawkins" <> writes:
>
>> "Sebastian G." <> wrote in message
>> news:...
>>>
>>> It can't fix user stupidity either. Now you're abusing Outlook
>>> Express as a newsreader, which is an open invitation for malware.
>>>
>> How ought I to read the newsgroups then ?
>
> Hi Jim,
>
> NNTP newsreading clients exist in many forms. One other popular one
> is Mozilla Seamonkey, which is a suite that includes a newsreader.
> Another popular one is XNews:
> http://xnews.newsguy.com/
>
> Forte Agent was popular at one time. I don't use a gui newsreader
> myself, but text mode is definitely not for everyone, so I won't
> attempt to steer you there.
>
> The group news.software.readers discusses such software.
>
> Best Regards,

You can also use Mozilla Thunderbird (email program) as a
newsreader - works quite well.

Louise

louise

Jim Hawkins wrote:


>> It can't fix user stupidity either. Now you're abusing Outlook Express as
>> a newsreader, which is an open invitation for malware.
>>
>
> How ought I to read the newsgroups then ?


With a real newsreader? Through Google groups via a webbrowser? Via a
mail2news gateway and a mail client?

Sebastian G.

David H. Lipman wrote:

> From: "Jim Hawkins" <>
>
>
> | How ought I to read the newsgroups then ?
> |
> | Jim Hawkins
> |
>
> His statements are overblown.
> OE has vulnerabilities but nothing major to worry about.

I wouldn't consider buffer overflows, script injection and arbitrary code
injection as overblown...

Sebastian G.

On Feb 1, 1:32*pm, "Jim Hawkins" <jimhawk...@manx.net> wrote:
> You buy a new computer, connect in to the internet and
> proceed to download your choice of ant-virus software,
> firewall, and possibly other security-enhancing stuff.
> But in the half-hour or more it takes to do all that, your pc is
> wide open, and with the frequency of probing attacks these
> days, a variety of undesirable agents could be installed and
> hidden before the anti-malware gets going.
> So why don't computer retailers offer machines with anti-malware
> stuff already installed ?
>
> Jim Hawkins

You could always just buy your firewall, anti-virus etc. off the
shelf at the store

allen.darrin@gmail.com