03.26.10
Microsoft’s Security Failures Help GNU/Linux
Summary: The idea of live CDs running GNU/Linux is promoted by realisation of Windows’ fundamental flaws
• Can Ubuntu save online banking?
Not really, says McLaughlin, a Certified Information Security Professional and CIO of CNL Bank. Accessing online banking from your everyday PC is just asking for trouble, he says.
In fact, the CIO of the Orlando, Florida-based regional bank would like to see all of his customers – both consumers and businesses – access online banking either from a dedicated machine or from a self-booting CD-ROM running Ubuntu Linux and Firefox.
• AVG makes available free Rescue CD
AVG Technologies has announced that its Rescue CD is now available as a freeware utility to all customers.
• AVG offers free emergency boot CD
AVG is also offering a version of the Rescue CD for Linux-based PCs.
• “Windows’ Boll Weevil problem
Windows defenders like to claim that all other operating systems would have just as much trouble if they were as popular as desktop Windows is. They’re wrong of course. Windows was designed as a single user operating system and to make it easy for applications to share data. That single-user, no IPC (interprocess communication) DNA remains in Windows to this day. That said, they do have a point, which is why I like to say that Windows has a “Boll Weevil” problem.
If you’re still running applications that are IE6-specific, you have to dump them. You’re doing your customers a disservice by requiring them to use a Web browser that’s infamous for its lack of security and is clearly on its way to the trash can. The sooner every company dumps support for IE6 and starts requiring that its Web applications can work with any generic HTML 4-compliant Web browser the better.
• Millions continue to click on spam (spam is sent from Windows)
Even though over 80% of email users are aware of the existence of bots, tens of millions respond to spam in ways that could leave them vulnerable to a malware infection, according to a Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) survey.
