[OFF-TOPIC] Microsoft security (was: multilanguage support ...)

bscott at ntisys.com bscott at ntisys.com
Tue Feb 17 22:43:39 EST 2004


On Mon, 16 Feb 2004, at 11:07pm, invalid at pizzashack.org wrote:
> I intended to install Zone Alarm immediately anyway ... which I trust a
> lot more than Microsoft.

  FWIW, I've read that the Microsoft firewall actually works pretty well,
for what it does.  It is fairly simply in terms of the options it supports,
but they do work.  Or so I'm told.

> When I have the chance, I'll look at this.  I'm fairly certain the
> toll-free line won't work for me here in Korea... ;-)

  I actually thought of that.  I even went so far as to click the
"International" link on that same page, and picked "Korea".  Unfortunately,
the resulting page was in Korean.  (At least, it used ideographs.  For all I
know, they were Vorlon ideographs.)  I guess that makes sense, but as *I*
don't read Korean, I had to stop there.  Sorry.  :)

> However isn't it still true that Windows comes with all-but-useless
> documentation?

  Actually, no.  The difference in the quality of the documentation that
comes with Windows 2000 (NT 5.0), vs NT 4.0, is quite dramatic.  The "Start
-> Help" function is now the first place one should look for information.

  You can find the same documentation online, in HTML, even.  For example,
the documentation set for Windows 2003 Server is at:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/proddocs/standard/default.asp

  *Finding* the information you want on Microsoft's labyrinthine website can
be a chore, of course.  Hard-to-navigate websites seem to be becoming an
industry standard, for some reason.  But I digress.  :)

> Unless I'm mistaken, Windows only comes with a small booklet ...

  The *printed* documentation that Windows comes with is pretty useless,
yes.  But I don't see a need to go killing trees just to print stuff most
people don't use anyway.  :)

> IIRC (at least some releases of) Win95 came with the resource guide on the
> CD.  But I think that stopped with Win98.

  FWIW, people who have to work in the Microsoft (like me) world generally
do not consider the Windows 95/98/ME series to be a real OS.  They're total
crap, and always have been.  If that's all you have to work with, you're
completely screwed from square one.

> If, like me, you feel that you should not have to pay for this
> information, that means you'll have to connect your unsecured system up to
> the net in order to find out how to do it.

  There is a general catch-22 involved in getting a system onto the 'net in
order to download the patches needed to make it safe to use on the 'net.  
This paradox is not unique to Microsoft.  It is, perhaps, worse in their
current software.  (But even that is changing.  Like I said, Microsoft has
decided to turn the firewall on by default in future versions of Windows,
and making the user hunt through dialog boxes to turn it off.)

> But if you're Joe Newbie, all of these barriers basically guarantee that
> it will never happen, even if Joe has the presence of mind to be worried
> about security in the first place.

  One of my major points in this whole super-thread has been that Joe Newbie
is going to get hosed regardless of whether he's running Windows XP or Red
Hat Linux 9.  In both cases, Joe Newbie connects to the network, turns off
the firewall for some stupid reason, runs as a privileged user all the time,
never updates anything, opens every email attachment he gets, downloads
software from untrusted sources, and generally does all the things we know
are a Really Bad Idea.  I wish I was making this stuff up, but I'm not.  

  The only thing keeping Linux reasonably free of this kind of pestilence
right now is that Joe Newbie generally doesn't run Linux in the first place.  
But every now and then, he does, and the same problems occur.  I've seen it
happen.  (Hey, look, I managed to slip Linux back in, here at the end.)

  The problem is a human one.  People need to be educated about computer
security to be able to operate a computer in a secure fashion.

  Yes, I'm going to keep beating this horse until it gets up and walks
again.  :-)  I consider it to be a rather important message.

-- 
Ben Scott <bscott at ntisys.com>
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