Re: Why does Windows allow Worms?

From: Joseph Fenn (jfenn_at_lava.net)
Date: 05/19/04 

Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 13:22:24 -1000

Attn Spamfree in Ohio.
Appears you have'nt seen a newspaper in past few years, nor
TV announcements of world/wide virus'. In what part of Mongolia
do you reside???? Those worlwide interrupts were no joke and
took down US govt machines right along with that 95% figure
pc windows users worldwide. Monkey virus can and do appear
often and it works by destroying the mbr. If your lucky enuff
to have updated your Nortins anti-virus just in time, you might
be covered. If its a new one the virus killers have'nt seen before
watch out man your playing jeapordy!
OS in ROM way to go for all computers!!!!!!!!!!
                    Kokomo Joe

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On Tue, 18 May 2004, Leythos wrote:

> In article <Pine.BSI.4.58.0405180918410.29421@malasada.lava.net>,
> jfenn@lava.net says...
> > As I said in my original post. OS in ROM is the answer. Yes of course
> > your data files like EXCEL, WORD, Quicken, data could still suffer
> > or collapse, but then you do keep backups on your data to cd-r's dont
> > you?
>
> Flaws in apps is what it's all about. The kernel for Linux is reasonably
> secure, but there are many flaws with the apps added to it - the same is
> true with any OS. Even Apple is having problems now.
>
> > No one can cream the mbr via virus if the OS is in ROM chips.
>
> They can't get to the MBR now, at least if you enable VIRUS detection in
> the BIOS or if you run a good AV software package.
>
> > Email attachments might mess up your ISP address book, but even that
> > could be saved to a flopy or other storage device. The very fact that
>
> E-Mail attachments would be every bit a problem that they are now.
> Nothing would change by moving the OS to a ROM.
>
> > MS is 95% of the world computer users suggests that one well planted
> > monkey virus can cream that entire world population overnight.
>
> Not true, it's already been tried. In most cases it only infects the
> ignorant users (including businesses that don't have a real security
> manager/team). For those people, once bitten often means they see the
> light and correct it. For the ignorant home user, the ROM would not save
> them in any way.
>
> > Which is more difficult, restore the entire heart of the OS of a
> > system from scratch, or pull a few floppies out and restore your
> > personal data files in a half hour maybe.
>
> A quick restore CD does the same for most users - most companies ship QR
> CD's with their machines, just insert, press power button, wait, answer
> a few questions, done.
>
> > Thats why LINUX, UNIX
> > and other systems have the advantage under the present state of
> > worldwide art of computering.
>
> Nope, no advantage for people listed above, in fact, most of them, home
> users, won't even be able to do the QR let alone a nix install. If they
> can, a QR CD set that is specifically going to restore their system to
> "like bought" state is going to be better than a Nix platform CD
> rebuild.
>
> > No feeling of satisfaction comes
> > to a virus creator that thinks he can kill the entire system
> > with one well planned mbr destructor if the mbr itself is in
> > ROM.
>
> You're still in the old days, most infections don't even look at the
> MBR, don't care about it, and good virus writers know that there are so
> many other things to infect. Heck, if they just infected a simple app it
> would do more than a MBR that's easy to detect.
>
> ROM is not the answer to any question - educating users and ISP's that
> take responsibility for their EMAIL systems and inbound traffic on
> residential networks is the answer.
>
> --
> --
> spamfree999@rrohio.com
> (Remove 999 to reply to me)
>