Tsk, tsk Diane. That tired old horse "if xxxxx had 95% of the market, blah,
blah, blah" again.
Face it, any other OS could have the lion's share of the market (say, like
Apache for web servers does) and would not get the viruses, worms, etc.
written for it.
It is precisely *because* it is a Microsoft product that it is attacked,
moreso for the fervent Microsoft haters than for the ease with which
Windows, SQL, IIS, etc are regularly hacked, attacked and wormed to death.
If Apple wrote Windows, it would be a lesser target. Simply attach the name
Microsoft to any product, program, or protocol and you have an instant
audience of drooling, slack-jawed, imbecilic, ne'er-do-wells just waiting to
pounce.
Just my opinion.
--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]
Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact.
After searching google.groups.com and finding no answer
Diane Poremsky [MVP] <
[email protected]> asked:
| Hotbar is an addin that many users install so they can add smilies to
| their email... it has nothing to do with porn. It's an annoyance...
| not a true virus (although many people consider it a virus).
|
| The problem is the internet and the users- When people drive through
| a seedy unfamiliar neighborhood they think nothing of locking the car
| doors and rolling up the windows a little more, just to be safe...
| the internet should be treated the same way - with firewalls and AV
| software.
|
| MS really can't do anything about virus writers - no more than Apple
| would go after then. (If apple has 98% of the market you can bet it
| would be a target of viruses - as it stands, too few people use Macs
| to interest most virus writers.) It's up to law enforcement to go
| after the virus writers - and users need to take responsibility to
| protect themselves by using firewalls and AV software and keeping
| them updated.
|
| --
| Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
|
|
| ||| Sounds like you installed spyware like Hotbar - look in add/
||| remove programs and see what is installed - google for the
||| names of unfamiliar programs and uninstall any that are spyware.
||
||
|| Good grief, Diane. I can't believe the stories I'm reading in these
|| newsgroup. I'm a relatively new Windows user (very long time Mac
|| user, and other computers before that) and what I read here is
|| enough to scare the heck out of me. The last thing in the world I
|| want is for porno ads to start showing up in my outgoing email
|| messages. In other messages, I read about virus problems. My
|| computer is only two months old and I've already had one virus on
|| that computer (thankfully, a very minor one). This is a nightmare.
|| I'm glad to see Microsoft is doing something to address this
|| problem, but clearly much more has to be done. What is Microsoft
|| doing to make it easier to go after the people who write and spread
|| virus programs? Perhaps the problem is with the internet itself, but
|| surely Microsoft can do something to push the internet towards a
|| safer environment. I don't honestly expect you to have the answers
|| to all this - I'm just letting off some steam.
||
||
|| Dwight Stewart (W5NET)
||
||
http://www.qsl.net/w5net/