Can win2K machine be infected by virus while sitting at the login screen?

[Jim Wray]

I have a win2K machine that I use mainly as a firewall using Winproxy
running as a service.
When the machine boots up winproxy will start and function normally even if
you never
log in. My question is this...does a win2K machine sitting at the login
prompt suffer the same
vulnerabilities as it might if you were logged in - in other words, does the
fact that you are not
logged in help in any way in protecting the machine from virus, trojan,
etc., attacks? What evil
deeds can be wrought upon the machine while sitting at the login prompt?

 

[Frankster]

It is less vulnerable than a workstation that is used by users, but still
vulnerable to some attacks. Mainly the ones targeted at networks, rather
than users/applications/emails.

-Frank

 

[Guest]

The system is just as vulnerable with or without logging on. Attacks almost
never come from someone logged onto the machine they are attacking. If the
computer is attached to a network in any way, it's vulnerable.