The Windows Security Nightmare

latif writes "Microsoft has set aside a $5 million fund for paying off informants on malware authors. In my opinion a good chunk of this money deserves to be paid to individuals who help catch the Microsoft employees behind the design of Windows Registry and Windows Update. As I found out, the two mis-features work together to deprive Windows users of all protection from malware. The details of my experience are in the article Why Windows is a Security Nightmare." In a related story, Anonymous Wussie writes "This guy had family with a problem: A Windows XP computer hit by worms that couldn't stay on-line long enough to get patched. His solution? A CD. This article describes the custom made CD he sent to his family member with patches, tools, and instructions to make a fresh install of Windows XP Home Internet safe. I know I'll be doing this in the future."

Comments

Security Nightmare

[m.h.2]

I'm sorry, but the security nightmare isn't Windows. It's the non-thinking morons who use Windows.

Re:Uh huh!

[Cthefuture]

Thats why I'm such a FreeBSD/Mac advocate.

Yeah right, until MacOS becomes popular enough for someone to exploit some known hole and install some sinister daemons, keyboard loggers, or whatever.

And don't think the root/user separation in OSX is gonna save you. All the virus/trojan would have to do is wait until you ran something requiring privileges (like the software update) and either grab the root password or piggyback inside the timeout period.