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I'm sorry...

I didn't realize that I would have to qualify my opinion as such. I never dreamed that anyone would take my opinion as FACT.

As for "corrolation" (it is correlation by the way), it is a statistical correlation.

In fact, if you look at the whole picture, the virus situation would likely be worse if Unix variants owned 90% of the PC market share.

How often is the grandmotherly old lady down the road going to recompile the kernel on her Linux box whenever there is a security issue with her Linux kernel?

The biggest issues with Windows are the exact reason they own 90% of the PC market.

Ease of use and novice users.

Active X automates many of the system configuration functions that have to be done manually on other operating systems. Because Windows is more easily configurable the novice user is going to most likely choose it over more complicated choices.

This is a double edged sword because, since Active X automates these configuration changes, there is no human watchdog to catch the malicious code.

Because Windows appeals to the novice user, it makes Windows a more target rich environment for virus writers. Novice users are much easier to social engineer than are the more tech savvy users.

I know, I work in network security and I have seen the things Novice users do.

It is an education issue. They should require computer users to take a test and get a license.

As an example, the other day we set up a phishing expedition.

We set up a website on the domain (Very official looking) and sent a broadcast email to everyone in the organization from "Network Security Center", an email account from within our domain.

This email had a link to the website and instructed the recipient to go to the website and enter their username and password to validate their LAN account or they would lose access to the network.

In the first eight hours, we had 390 usernames and passwords.

So, in my OPINION, if Unix variant operating systems held the same share of the PC market and had a user base with the same demographic the virus situation would be as bad or worse than it is now.

Posted by: Thored   Posted on: 04/15/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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