Re: So how secure is Windows XP with all current updates?

From: Alun Jones [MSFT] (alunj_at_online.microsoft.com)
Date: 06/23/04

  • Next message: Nicki: "People with MSN email accounts saying they didn't receive emails" 
    Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 09:26:31 -0700

    "Patrick J. LoPresti" <patl@users.sourceforge.net> wrote in message
    news:s5g4qp3dnqo.fsf@patl=users.sf.net...
    > The safest bet for a corporate security policy is to ban the use of IE
    > entirely (and Windows, for that matter). Or tell people not to browse
    > unknown sites.

    >From a similar point of view, one should also note that most spams and
    phishing attempts are made in the English language. As a result, the safest
    bet is to ban the use of the English language entirely, as there are clearly
    too many ways the English language can be used to fool people. Since other
    languages do not feature as prominently, we can deduce that those languages
    manage to avoid these problems by preventing people from lying.

    I have many Hungarian-English dictionaries for sale - see the sign in the
    newsagent's window.

    [I'm using humour here to make a point - the 'monoculture is evil' argument
    has one huge flaw - that the mass abandonment of the existing monoculture
    would lead quickly to the establishment of another monoculture, which would
    have the same effective level of flaws. There are two effective levels -
    exploitable, and not exploitable. One exploit is as good as twenty, as far
    as a hacker is concerned. Monoculture is neither wholly good nor evil - it
    is a fact, and the result is that the monoculture needs to be secured from
    attack(*).]

    Alun.
    ~~~~
    (*) No, I don't mean commercial attack, I'm still talking about hackers.

  • Next message: Nicki: "People with MSN email accounts saying they didn't receive emails"

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