Re: How to prevent malware from running on your PC

On Thu, 22 Sep 2005 18:33:49 +0100, "Jason Edwards"
<none1@invalid.invalid> wrote:

>"Art" <null@zilch.com> wrote in message
>news:3585j1d0566qa57sq8oms1fg4fklq83j2h@4ax.com...
>> On Thu, 22 Sep 2005 10:01:24 +0100, "Jason Edwards"
>> <none1@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>>
>> >So as I said previously we're stuck with the present situation.
>> >I don't have any simple answer to it.
>>
>> I've long wondered why the Dells and the Gateways, etc., haven't
>> designed and released high security desktops.
>
>I'm not sure exactly what you mean by high security desktops.

I meant to give an example by the things I mentioned. I didn't
mention patching the OS though. That's important too, of course.
Basically it just means shipping the machine with a OS and internet
apps safe to go online with. That's all.

"High security" is admittedly a poor choice of term. "Improved
security out of the box" is actually what I have in mind.

> I dunno what their
>> contracts with MS block them from doing.
>>
>> Back in 1999 when I first started using using Win 98 and became
>> interested in security isues. I soon made up my mind to try a long
>> term experiment. I was used to using Free Agent and Netscape
>> so I lucked out and never used OE or IE. I disabled services and
>> made sure only TCP/IP was bound to my adapter(s). I never used
>> a firewall or realtime antivirus. After awhile I got DSL service and
>> continued on the same way for years ... taking the same approach
>> with Win ME and then Win 2K Pro. I dropped Netscape in favor
>> of Mozilla, Firefox and Opera. Later on , I started using IE very
>> sparingly only for trusted sites that didn't render well otherwise.
>> I've never experienced any problems at all with spyware or malicious
>> code of any kind.
>>
>> So I wonder what stops PC vendors from offering a safe and
>> sane PC for home users who just want to get work done, d/l
>> POP3 email, and do research on the web.
>
>They already offer it. Provided the user, like yourself, has a clue.

I'm not a typical user. I'm a retired electronic engineer who
has worked for computer oriented companies since 1959. Even at
that, I had a steep learing curve since I had no networking or
Windows programming experience. Still don't.

>> As long as users
>> "keep their noses clean" and avoid the crap high risk users
>> get involved with like P2P and porn ... they should have no
>> problems.
>
>Most users are not like this. They bought the PC to grab what they can from
>P2P while P2P still exists. Security is not even something they will
>associate with a home computer.

Do you have good studies to support your claim? I really have no idea
what "most" users are interested in or what they do online. All users
I know personally just use PCs for legit purposes. They have no clue
whatsoever about how to harden their PCs. They view their PCs as a
appliance that should just work safely without any bother. I'm saying
that a machine can easily be produced for such people ... and such a
machine is unfortunatley unavailable for the mass home market.

>> What I'd like to see is a machine that's safe to put on the
>> internet in its default condition, equiped with alternate
>> internet apps, and a spare drive for use as a cloned backup.
>
>This PC would be fine for you, me and the other 50 people who read this
>group.
>No vendor will target a PC at only 52 people for economic reasons :)

I believe your estimate of the market potential is _way_ off. However,
since MS has sold the public on LANs and file/printer sharing, there
would have to be a LAN version with a firewall to suit this MS created
market. No big deal. It just means that the LAN version would be
shipped with NETBIOS activated (but no other unnecessary services).

>>It should also have the backup/restore sw (I always
>> used XXCOPY with Win 9X/ME). And a nice convenient
>> registry backup/restore such as ERUNT that I use with
>> Win 2K. It should _not_ have any System Restore doing
>> any kind of automatic backups. That sucks :) Users must
>> take at least take complete control and responsibility
>> for backing up.
>
>Backup?? This word is not even listed in the average home user's vocabulary.

True. There should be instructions on Page 1 of the user manual, and
on the screen during a install.

Art
 
http://home.epix.net/~artnpeg
Received on Thu Sep 29 20:10:12 2005