PDF security risk greater than originally thought

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Sorry, I am skeptical

After years of constant badgering from every product imaginable to drop everything and install various critical updates, frankly, I am extremely skeptical as to the danger posed by some of these alleged threats. Yes, many of the Windows updates I've seen (and been responsible for installing on my client PCs) are important and protect against various worms and so forth, but I would like to see some real-life examples of successful hacks and exploits used against systems with unpatched Adobe Reader products. Maybe I've gotten jaded by the endless harassment on the part of Adobe Reader to update, update, update (rather than actually using the product to, oh, READ a PDF file!) but I have never seen a single, solitary measurable improvement brought about by any of these update. Just the opposite: newer versions of Adobe get bigger... and bigger... and bigger, and take longer... and loooonnnnger... and LOOOOOOONNNGGGGEER to install. They also produce further unending nags and please to install further updates. Frankly, updates only seem to lead to more annoying demands to install more ridiculous updates. That is what I feel is behind this latest push to Adobe: getting people to upgrade to version 8 which will be what, 50 Mb? And will contain how many unwanted features? And will result in how much longer of a wait while opening .PDF files, because Adobe has to call home and provide you with another treadmill series of "must have" updates to install before you can actually use their product for something productive?

No thanks. I've heard enough about the free Foxit reader that I'm making the switch. I don't believe my fully-OS-patched, antivirused, antispywared and firewalled system will be the slightest bit more vulnerable or susceptible to any attacks, contrary to the hysteria and hand-wringing from Adobe, which like your annoying little brother just seems to want to be in your face, front and center, hogging all the attention.

Posted by: mreilly19   Posted on: 01/05/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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