MyIE2 is now Maxthon

[Bob Adkins]

I hope you are not calling people who know more about security than you
"weenies", Bob. Otherwise there will be lots of "weenies" out there. And
what about people who know less than you, do you call them "ignorant"?
Looks like there are lots of weenies and ignorant people out there then
.

Mmmmm, noooo. I call people who live in fear of every threat they read about
on the Internet weenies.

The word "Ignorant" is misused. Some people (in their ignorance) us it as a
derogatory term. It simply means "unknowing". There is no dishonor in being
ignorant on a given subject. I am ignorant on kazoo making. So what? I am
capable of learning, and given a week, could make fine kazoos.

Does not pertain to you? Do you not understand what remote execution
means?
Let me turn it around, in what situations would a security exploit
warning "pertain" to you?

When I hear about a new exploit, I do basically the same thing as you do.
The difference is, I don't run around trying to scare people.

When you are already infected ? Preferably when it installs itself and
says "Bob, you should not have ignored the following security exploit
warning ....."

Big deal. I've been infected before, and I'm still here.

I understand perfectly. While you don't really like reinstalling your
computer you certainly won't be suicidial if your computer gets infected
or hacked. Heck that's pretty much the view of many people too.

There goes the extreme adjectives again. "Suicide"? Let's reserve that for
people and the rare animal or 2. Not inanimate objects.

But what I don't get is that amazingly in one breath you admit you don't
know much about security, yet on another hand, you consider yourself
perfectly capable of evaluating whether a certain exploit is relevant to
you or not.

That is what I don't understand.

I only need and want to know enough about security to fulfill my own needs.
That isn't much. If a new security threat appears about which I am ignorant,
I quickly find out how to counter it. That takes what? 5 minutes? <shrug>

------------

"One thing vampire children have to be taught early on is, don't run
with a wooden stake."



Bob

 

[Aaron]

Mmmmm, noooo. I call people who live in fear of every threat they read
about on the Internet weenies.

And what do you call people who don't know enough to be afraid?

When I hear about a new exploit, I do basically the same thing as you
do.

So you are saying you *do* take note of exploits.
Still, I'm curious, what exactly do you do?

The difference is, I don't run around trying to scare people.

Scaring or informing? Is ignorance really bliss?

Big deal. I've been infected before, and I'm still here.

Really? Do share. Did you ever find out what caused it? Most people
don't.

I only need and want to know enough about security to fulfill my own
needs. That isn't much. If a new security threat appears about which I
am ignorant, I quickly find out how to counter it. That takes what? 5
minutes? <shrug>

You know what, from someone who mocks security warnings rated as
critical, you now present yourself as one who dilgently studies security
threats and acts to counter it, that is very heartening to hear.





Aaron (my email is not munged!)

 

[Bob Adkins]

And what do you call people who don't know enough to be afraid?

What people?
Where?
Are you sure they don't know enough?
Or do they just not care?
Should they be afraid of what you said?
Are there monsters under the bed?

Scaring or informing? Is ignorance really bliss?

Every man, woman, and child on this forum already knows basic security. It's
not my job to nag on them.

Really? Do share. Did you ever find out what caused it? Most people
don't.

Some little cracker in Maine passed me a virus that he himself created. My
AV missed it of course. I traced him to a small town, and persuaded a
friend of his to him rat him out. Unfortunately he was unemployed, so all I
could do was call his mother. (Yep, 19, out of school, no job, living with
mother!) I scared the pee out of him, but couldn't do anything more material
without a 2000 mile flight.

You know what, from someone who mocks security warnings rated as
critical, you now present yourself as one who dilgently studies security
threats and acts to counter it, that is very heartening to hear.

If you can call 1 minute a day diligent. That's about the average time I
spend on security.

I don't mock security. I mock those who try to frighten IE users into using
brand X.

Bob

 

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?=BBQ=AB?=]

What people?
Where?

The ones with owned machines being used as spambots and worm-sprayers
are the only ones I much care about. I dunno where they are exactly,
but I guess if I wanted to dig through my voluminous mail kill logs I
could give you some of their IPs.

Are you sure they don't know enough?
Or do they just not care?

Or both. If they don't know enough, they should learn. If they
don't care, they are acting irresponsibly.

Should they be afraid of what you said?

Nope. They should reformat, and then they should do better to secure
their machines. One easy step would be to stop using IE and IE
shells; a more difficult and less effective step would be to learn
all the things you have to do to make IE more secure and then do
them.

Are there monsters under the bed?

If by this you mean unpatched vulnerabilities in IE which allow
remote attackers to own one's machine, I'm gonna bet 'yes'.