I am in InfoSec for a medium-sized environment (3-4000 users) and know all of the tradeoffs that have to be made to keep usability and security from defeating each other. In my case, I work in a hospital, so usability trumps security. If a computer is unusable, someone could die; if a security breach happens, we can mitigate the damage. There are definite ways to keep desktops and servers secure which do not significantly degrade their usability. However, if the company doesn't give adequate funding and get well-qualified people to run the security department, you get the kind of overzealous blocking that you have described.
-Blocking technology is out there to allow an individual to bypass the block by entering a username and password. Yeah, I know "just one more password to forget," but this kind of thing helps to keep access to potentially "bad" sites honest. The technology also exists to always allow a certain computer/account to access these types of sites. Anything less is a case of underfunding or using the wrong tools.
-Your antivirus vendor should be at least customizable enough to selectively allow SMTP sending on production servers. Ideally with servers, you'd have it only allow certain programs to send mail or have a threshold of connections per second that it would prevent (most mass mailing viruses I've seen send one email per connection before changing servers). If your AV has these tools, the IT department doesn't seem to be managing them well. I have a problem here with our AntiVirus detecting security tools as "hacker tools." As far as I know, with our current configuration we cannot change that behavior just for me and not for any other computers, so I choose to deal with the hassle of it reporting, but not quarrantining my apps.
-Patch Management is tricky, but if there are adequate safeguards on the desktops (ie. minimal services, userlevel accounts, antivirus, etc.) then your company should be on a schedule of deploying patches. For example, once a quarter you test all the apps for compatability with patches and then deploy the ones which don't break anything. Deployment would be carried out with minimal downtime, at off-peak hours. This procedure would be thoroughly documented through some kind of change management procedure where everyone knows that changes will be made to the systems, so they can report any problems with the upgrades.
I read an article a while back that came to the conclusion (IIRC) that keyboards were the most unclean surfaces in a hospital. I can say from experience that this is probably true. It would be nice to get some kind of sealed, bacteria-resistant keyboard, but the ones Dell gives us are free, so guess which ones we'll use. The cleanest keyboards are in our pathology lab (where they cut up parts of dead people) because we have those plastic things that go over the keys.
The CIO immediately thought I was going to do something terrible to the system, and destroy accounts, and any other activity that I have access to, but I was giving him notice that I was leaving. What is the professional thing to do?
Do all this stuff BEFORE putting in your notice. Or just enjoy your extra 2 weeks paid vacation.
Most of the replies to this article go something like "You can't learn anything in 24 hours" or "If you use this book you shouldn't use Unix". The first type of reply is valid, but this review points out in several places that this book is useful as a reference guide, not just as a lesson-based learning method. And "Learn $THING$ in $TIME$" is a whole lot catchier and more profitable than "Figure It Out Yourself". Everybody needs to start somewhere, and for some folks, getting a book that will get them to do something meaningful at a command line is a GREAT start! As for the people who post the second type of comment: Get back under your bridge, troll. Seriously, not everybody here at slashdot has been programming C for a decade and uses lynx to surf. I'm sure a lot of people will find this book useful to them, just as "Learn Personal Hygiene in 24 Hours" would be useful to you.
I wonder what would happen if somebody brought a small claims court case based on this...
[waves fingers in front of face Wayne's World style]
Judge Judy: So I understand that this man's company facak'ded up your computer? And it cost you 600 meshugena dollars to get it fixed?
Random Dude: Yes, your honor. I bought some lame ass CD that Sony price gouged me for (they have DJs to pay off you know) and when I put it into the CD drive on my Sony laptop, the drive stopped working and the computer didn't function properly. I went to my local Sony authorized dealer to have my computer serviced, but they weren't able to fix it. Since they said it was a software issue and not covered under the warranty, they charged me $200 (they have call centers to outsource you know). So then I was going to reload Windows XP, but my Sony laptop didn't come with the original CD (they have Politicians to bribe you know). So that set me back $400 for a new copy.
JJ: That is unconscionable. What is your side of the story?
Howard Stringer (CEO of Sony): He forgot to mention that we sued his kid brother for having music on the computer.
JJ: You, sir, are below slime. I find for the Plaintiff.
Or if it was on Texas Justice:
Larry Joe Doherty: Hey boy! I hear this guy cost you some mucho dinero 'cause of your computer or something?
[same as above, but with a different end]
LJD: Give that boy his $600! Now come sit in this chair and put this hat on!
The same scenario on Judge Joe Brown:
Joe Brown: I'm from the streets, but I've never heard of this scam. Tell me how it went down.
[yadda yadda from above]
[the judge sticks a shiv in the CEO and then hands the wallet to Random Dude]
JB: Case dismissed.
And on Night Court:
Harold T. Stone: $50 and time served...and Dan will fuck your wife and sister while Bull pulls out your arms and beats you with them.
[the judge disappears in a puff of smoke]
I've got about a dozen linux Live CDs and only about half of them run X on my laptop. Only one will actually install itsself to the hard drive, though several have the option. I tried to install gentoo and couldn't for the life of me get it going on my desktop. I tried installing OpenBSD and have apparently fucked up two hard drives to the point that no OS will see nor format them. I'm no master Linux user, but I've got several years experience with command line Linux/Unix/BSD stuff.
Windows and OSX go on cleanly and easily every damn time.
Why should I have to pull my computer apart to see what audio chipset I have, and then translate this into whatever cryptic name the installer calls it? What if it's not there? Why should I have to figure out how much swap space to use before I even start using the computer? And how much user space? And how much temp space? If X doesn't recognize my video card, what do I do? I could edit some.conf file somewhere, or maybe try and run through the setup and try to figure out what video modes X will support on my card. And oh yeah, I'll have to rip the computer apart to see what video chipset I'm using.
Windows uses the lowest common denominator and then detects what stuff I have and then installs the drivers for me. Alright, so many times it doesn't have the drivers built in, especially for newer hardware. At least I've got a GUI and a web browser to go download what I need! OSX is even easier. If you've never installed it, go to one of those Apple stores and ask if you can go through the OSX install. You'll get a funny look, but once you get the chance you'll see that it's nearly brainless compared to Linux/BSD.
Installing software is a microcosm of the above: Linux is confusing (BSD is better), Windows is much better, and OSX is deceptively simple. OK, let's say I get something compiled and built in Linux. Where the hell is it? How do I use it? Is it in/usr/local/share/xxx,/usr/bin/, etc.? Is there an icon in X? Windows usually gives me an icon on the desk, the quick start, or the Start Menu (but it puts it somewhere in my face for me to see). I'm still getting used to OSX and how things install there. Sometimes I can't find them or don't know how to use them, but that's mostly the OSS that is built for it.
Windows isn't perfect and neither is OSX, but they're both better than Linux at setup and installation. Ease of use (for neophites) is a no brainer. For very experienced people, Linux probably wins because it is more customizable. For most people it is probably a toss up, leaning toward Windows. I know folks are going to be pissed off at me and tell me that I should RTFM more, but that's the point! With Windows and OSX you don't really NEED TFM to perform most operations.
I'm not worrying about the EU or the UN taking over "control" of the internet. Oh, gee...they gave some demand for getting it done by next month or they'd do it themselves. This is the friggin' European Union[sic] here! By the time they've come up with an alternative solution and gotten it implemented, we'll all be on fiber connections to the Internet 2 or 3. OK, let's say they get a plan together within the next 30 days and set it up. Who hosts all of the servers? 1 for each country? Sure! Then when France decides they don't want to recognize Yahoo! anymore, they fuck it up for everybody. When Germany decides not to recognize Poland as a web presence and shut down the.pl TLD, there is utter chaos. None of the EU countries is truly dedicated to the EU over their own national interests. The US has done an admirable job of holding the reigns of the internet for the past 40 years. On the internet, the entire WORLD has the right to Free Speech! If the US doesn't like that some guy in Iran is posting bomb building instructions on his blog, they don't drop the host. But you can bet your ass that if somebody posts "Chirac has farty pants", the site will be inaccessable from anybody in.fr.
The easiest thing to do would be to use a standardized image to rebuild the computer. In a perfect world, that would be the first step to fix almost any problem. However, our underfunded IT department supports over 300 apps, not to mention the several dozen that different departments might use which are not supported. It isn't the backing up of the data that is the trouble, it's the reinstalling of the applications. For example, one department has software that requires Windows 95! All of this makes wiping and starting over a much more challenging task than removing the spyware.
I work with spyware infected systems every day, and I have never found a "rootkit" on one. But there is some really nasty stuff out there. Lots of spyware installs itsself as a service, but that is easy enough to get rid of, just use "msconfig". The trickier ones, however, install themselves as drivers. These require manual regedit hacking which is a major PITA.
The most effective method that I have found to get rid of spyware on an infected system, by the way, is to boot from a liveWindowsbootable CD to delete all the crappy spyware directories from c:\Program Files, then go into c:\windows and c:\windows\system32, sort the files by date, and delete the newest ones that look suspicious. Write these filenames down and remove them from the registry when you reboot.
Is that a bloated OS in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?
Seriously, Bart's PE probably takes up 300MB. Double that for some fancyness in the full blown windows XP that MS ships. Why the fuck does the thing take up like 3GB on my hard drive?
This is just like the other day when Gates said that iPods will die off when cell phones play mp3s. Name a cell phone company who has gotten it right when it comes to getting good quality from a small device. Name a cell phone company/product which has the loyalty and desirability of the iPod. It is an impossible task. Apple has a big advantage in that they could potentially enter into a joint development project with a cell phone maker or just buy one. A 2GB shuffle based cellphone would sell more than Apple could make, even if it costs $500. Then when the cell service companies bundle it with a few hundred in cash back 6 months later, it will be a stampede.
The problem with Ballmer's thinking is that it assumes the iPod will not innovate similarly. When the cell phone/mp3 player FINALLY comes around, you'll be watching a movie on your Apple Cinema Projector streaming from your iVid (you know, the one with the 4" oLED display and 200GB) which is seated in the convenient built-in adapter. You'll get a gIM on your cellphone asking if you want to go to Florida for Spring Break, so you browse over to gTravel to check on hotels, rental cars, and flights, check gWeather for the typical climate that week, get driving directions with gMaps to get to all the beaches. Then you gIM your friend back to tell them it's all set!
Remember how Gates predicted "Nobody will ever need more than 640k RAM?" The problem that Microsoft execs is their failure to foresee innovations. Their usual MO is to blast the latest trend, product, or service while they can scrape together an imitation of their own. Then they claim that they "made it right" and bully out the competition.
The MS program doesn't actually count the number of FILES it detects as spyware, but the number of SIGNATURES it detects. This means that one file can result in several detections. Ad-Aware does the same thing. To me the biggest advantage of the MS products is that, for now, it is free and has a resident program to deny access to malicious code. However, it seems like the stuff it detects is the same stuff that SpyBot's TeaTimer stops. I am not impressed with how far along the software is considering the time, because it is built on a well-established program. Just look in the task manager and you can see that they didn't bother to change the file name.
Most of the suggestions mentioned here are some form of "lock down the PC." That is a very good solution, but only if you're using XP or 2000. We have about 300 PCs running 98se and they are most of our problem. We have to do this becuase some of our apps don't run properly (or at all) on XP. In fact, we've got one app that runs only on OS/2 Warp! No spyware on that one.
To further complicate the situation, some of our apps are web interface apps with ActiveX controls which require IE to run. Therefore we can't just run firefox or something.
If we just reimaged the PCs every night, we'd hear a hellacious uproar from people who have things saved on their local machines. You can't change several years of corporate culture overnight. Also, think of the people who don't know what a folder or directory is. They don't know the difference between a network drive and their local drive.
There are quite a few solutions that would work after a year or more of re-education, redeployment, restructuring, etc. but this is not an option for us right now. What we REALLY need is a piece of software that runs the way Symantec AntiVirus Corporate does: allowing us to push updates on a regular basis from an internal server, scan silently, report back to the central server any problems found, block install attempts, etc. Right now nothing we have found will reliably remove and prevent spyware/adware. Even Ad-Aware and SpyBot (the two we most commonly use) do not remove all of the popups, not even right after the new definitions have been released. There is a HUGE market for someone to step up and take care of this kind of thing, but nobody seems to be able or willing to do it.
I don't believe he uses Free Software; that means that Microsoft is not satisfying their customers
Last time I checked, Microsoft wasn't the only non-Free Softwaresoftware maker. Many programs have only a limited selection of options, not just Microsoft stuff. Actually, for tweakers, Microsoft usually has more user-changable options than most other software out there.
If you want to tout news clippings (in the sports section?), number of movies, and number of books as proof that something is true, let's see...Star Wars has at least 6 movies, countless books, and more newspaper coverage than a paper maché donkey. That doesn't make it any more tangible than the facts in Michael Moore's movies. No, I haven't seen the movie. I watched part of Bowling for Columbine and was so pissed off at the guy for distorting the facts and making up lies(the 2nd ammendment caused 9/11? video games caused the Columbine shootings?) that I couldn't watch any more. No actually it made me want to go out and buy all of Ted Nugent's albums, Charlton Heston's movies, and several guns just to say F you to the guy.
I don't really know why this is a story on Slashdot, but there have been other articles which had nothing to do with their tagline (News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters) which I found interesting. I'm not going to cry foul now just because I don't like the movie. If anybody goes and sees the thing, just remember that Moore is a guy with an axe to grind and that this is NOT a documentary. It is an editorial. The man has said it himself. Please keep an open mind and remember that for each half-fact he presents there is another half that he leaves out.
weren't there some cases where the cell phone batteries catch fire themselves? I think i remember reading about that here, but I don't have the time to search for the link.
At any rate, our psych class did a project last semester about the crappy warning labels and changing things around to make the hidden dangers more apparent. The industry really needs to do a better job with designing and placing them. Most of the warnings mention not to use cell phones, but it's really just a CYA maneuver.
it would be cool if you could pay for your car online if a meeting runs long or something. other than that, this seems like more of a waste of money and raises the risk of them getting stolen. stealing the old fashioned ones is cool, but stealing a bunch of portable solar computers would be bad-ass!
Slashdot Mirror
I am in InfoSec for a medium-sized environment (3-4000 users) and know all of the tradeoffs that have to be made to keep usability and security from defeating each other. In my case, I work in a hospital, so usability trumps security. If a computer is unusable, someone could die; if a security breach happens, we can mitigate the damage. There are definite ways to keep desktops and servers secure which do not significantly degrade their usability. However, if the company doesn't give adequate funding and get well-qualified people to run the security department, you get the kind of overzealous blocking that you have described.
-Blocking technology is out there to allow an individual to bypass the block by entering a username and password. Yeah, I know "just one more password to forget," but this kind of thing helps to keep access to potentially "bad" sites honest. The technology also exists to always allow a certain computer/account to access these types of sites. Anything less is a case of underfunding or using the wrong tools.
-Your antivirus vendor should be at least customizable enough to selectively allow SMTP sending on production servers. Ideally with servers, you'd have it only allow certain programs to send mail or have a threshold of connections per second that it would prevent (most mass mailing viruses I've seen send one email per connection before changing servers). If your AV has these tools, the IT department doesn't seem to be managing them well. I have a problem here with our AntiVirus detecting security tools as "hacker tools." As far as I know, with our current configuration we cannot change that behavior just for me and not for any other computers, so I choose to deal with the hassle of it reporting, but not quarrantining my apps.
-Patch Management is tricky, but if there are adequate safeguards on the desktops (ie. minimal services, userlevel accounts, antivirus, etc.) then your company should be on a schedule of deploying patches. For example, once a quarter you test all the apps for compatability with patches and then deploy the ones which don't break anything. Deployment would be carried out with minimal downtime, at off-peak hours. This procedure would be thoroughly documented through some kind of change management procedure where everyone knows that changes will be made to the systems, so they can report any problems with the upgrades.
I read an article a while back that came to the conclusion (IIRC) that keyboards were the most unclean surfaces in a hospital. I can say from experience that this is probably true. It would be nice to get some kind of sealed, bacteria-resistant keyboard, but the ones Dell gives us are free, so guess which ones we'll use. The cleanest keyboards are in our pathology lab (where they cut up parts of dead people) because we have those plastic things that go over the keys.
Do all this stuff BEFORE putting in your notice. Or just enjoy your extra 2 weeks paid vacation.
Water is a MUCH better heat conductor (and thus coolant), so sea mammmals can have a higher mass:SA ratio than land mammals.
Most of the replies to this article go something like "You can't learn anything in 24 hours" or "If you use this book you shouldn't use Unix". The first type of reply is valid, but this review points out in several places that this book is useful as a reference guide, not just as a lesson-based learning method. And "Learn $THING$ in $TIME$" is a whole lot catchier and more profitable than "Figure It Out Yourself". Everybody needs to start somewhere, and for some folks, getting a book that will get them to do something meaningful at a command line is a GREAT start! As for the people who post the second type of comment: Get back under your bridge, troll. Seriously, not everybody here at slashdot has been programming C for a decade and uses lynx to surf. I'm sure a lot of people will find this book useful to them, just as "Learn Personal Hygiene in 24 Hours" would be useful to you.
When I saw this article I thought there was some new GPLed DVD R/W drive or something.
I wonder what would happen if somebody brought a small claims court case based on this...
[waves fingers in front of face Wayne's World style]
Judge Judy: So I understand that this man's company facak'ded up your computer? And it cost you 600 meshugena dollars to get it fixed?
Random Dude: Yes, your honor. I bought some lame ass CD that Sony price gouged me for (they have DJs to pay off you know) and when I put it into the CD drive on my Sony laptop, the drive stopped working and the computer didn't function properly. I went to my local Sony authorized dealer to have my computer serviced, but they weren't able to fix it. Since they said it was a software issue and not covered under the warranty, they charged me $200 (they have call centers to outsource you know). So then I was going to reload Windows XP, but my Sony laptop didn't come with the original CD (they have Politicians to bribe you know). So that set me back $400 for a new copy.
JJ: That is unconscionable. What is your side of the story?
Howard Stringer (CEO of Sony): He forgot to mention that we sued his kid brother for having music on the computer.
JJ: You, sir, are below slime. I find for the Plaintiff.
Or if it was on Texas Justice:
Larry Joe Doherty: Hey boy! I hear this guy cost you some mucho dinero 'cause of your computer or something?
[same as above, but with a different end]
LJD: Give that boy his $600! Now come sit in this chair and put this hat on!
The same scenario on Judge Joe Brown:
Joe Brown: I'm from the streets, but I've never heard of this scam. Tell me how it went down.
[yadda yadda from above]
[the judge sticks a shiv in the CEO and then hands the wallet to Random Dude]
JB: Case dismissed.
And on Night Court:
Harold T. Stone: $50 and time served...and Dan will fuck your wife and sister while Bull pulls out your arms and beats you with them.
[the judge disappears in a puff of smoke]
I've got about a dozen linux Live CDs and only about half of them run X on my laptop. Only one will actually install itsself to the hard drive, though several have the option. I tried to install gentoo and couldn't for the life of me get it going on my desktop. I tried installing OpenBSD and have apparently fucked up two hard drives to the point that no OS will see nor format them. I'm no master Linux user, but I've got several years experience with command line Linux/Unix/BSD stuff.
.conf file somewhere, or maybe try and run through the setup and try to figure out what video modes X will support on my card. And oh yeah, I'll have to rip the computer apart to see what video chipset I'm using.
/usr/local/share/xxx, /usr/bin/, etc.? Is there an icon in X? Windows usually gives me an icon on the desk, the quick start, or the Start Menu (but it puts it somewhere in my face for me to see). I'm still getting used to OSX and how things install there. Sometimes I can't find them or don't know how to use them, but that's mostly the OSS that is built for it.
Windows and OSX go on cleanly and easily every damn time.
Why should I have to pull my computer apart to see what audio chipset I have, and then translate this into whatever cryptic name the installer calls it? What if it's not there? Why should I have to figure out how much swap space to use before I even start using the computer? And how much user space? And how much temp space? If X doesn't recognize my video card, what do I do? I could edit some
Windows uses the lowest common denominator and then detects what stuff I have and then installs the drivers for me. Alright, so many times it doesn't have the drivers built in, especially for newer hardware. At least I've got a GUI and a web browser to go download what I need! OSX is even easier. If you've never installed it, go to one of those Apple stores and ask if you can go through the OSX install. You'll get a funny look, but once you get the chance you'll see that it's nearly brainless compared to Linux/BSD.
Installing software is a microcosm of the above: Linux is confusing (BSD is better), Windows is much better, and OSX is deceptively simple. OK, let's say I get something compiled and built in Linux. Where the hell is it? How do I use it? Is it in
Windows isn't perfect and neither is OSX, but they're both better than Linux at setup and installation. Ease of use (for neophites) is a no brainer. For very experienced people, Linux probably wins because it is more customizable. For most people it is probably a toss up, leaning toward Windows. I know folks are going to be pissed off at me and tell me that I should RTFM more, but that's the point! With Windows and OSX you don't really NEED TFM to perform most operations.
I, for one, welcome our new PNA overlords...
birds, bats, insects, spaghetti monsters....yup!
I'm not worrying about the EU or the UN taking over "control" of the internet. Oh, gee...they gave some demand for getting it done by next month or they'd do it themselves. This is the friggin' European Union[sic] here! By the time they've come up with an alternative solution and gotten it implemented, we'll all be on fiber connections to the Internet 2 or 3. OK, let's say they get a plan together within the next 30 days and set it up. Who hosts all of the servers? 1 for each country? Sure! Then when France decides they don't want to recognize Yahoo! anymore, they fuck it up for everybody. When Germany decides not to recognize Poland as a web presence and shut down the .pl TLD, there is utter chaos. None of the EU countries is truly dedicated to the EU over their own national interests. The US has done an admirable job of holding the reigns of the internet for the past 40 years. On the internet, the entire WORLD has the right to Free Speech! If the US doesn't like that some guy in Iran is posting bomb building instructions on his blog, they don't drop the host. But you can bet your ass that if somebody posts "Chirac has farty pants", the site will be inaccessable from anybody in .fr.
The easiest thing to do would be to use a standardized image to rebuild the computer. In a perfect world, that would be the first step to fix almost any problem. However, our underfunded IT department supports over 300 apps, not to mention the several dozen that different departments might use which are not supported. It isn't the backing up of the data that is the trouble, it's the reinstalling of the applications. For example, one department has software that requires Windows 95! All of this makes wiping and starting over a much more challenging task than removing the spyware.
au contraire
I work with spyware infected systems every day, and I have never found a "rootkit" on one. But there is some really nasty stuff out there. Lots of spyware installs itsself as a service, but that is easy enough to get rid of, just use "msconfig". The trickier ones, however, install themselves as drivers. These require manual regedit hacking which is a major PITA.
The most effective method that I have found to get rid of spyware on an infected system, by the way, is to boot from a live Windows bootable CD to delete all the crappy spyware directories from c:\Program Files, then go into c:\windows and c:\windows\system32, sort the files by date, and delete the newest ones that look suspicious. Write these filenames down and remove them from the registry when you reboot.
Is that a bloated OS in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? Seriously, Bart's PE probably takes up 300MB. Double that for some fancyness in the full blown windows XP that MS ships. Why the fuck does the thing take up like 3GB on my hard drive?
How come every thing is "5 years away" but never seems to get here. I'll bet the writers for the Jetsons anticipated space cars in 5 years too.
This is just like the other day when Gates said that iPods will die off when cell phones play mp3s. Name a cell phone company who has gotten it right when it comes to getting good quality from a small device. Name a cell phone company/product which has the loyalty and desirability of the iPod. It is an impossible task. Apple has a big advantage in that they could potentially enter into a joint development project with a cell phone maker or just buy one. A 2GB shuffle based cellphone would sell more than Apple could make, even if it costs $500. Then when the cell service companies bundle it with a few hundred in cash back 6 months later, it will be a stampede.
The problem with Ballmer's thinking is that it assumes the iPod will not innovate similarly. When the cell phone/mp3 player FINALLY comes around, you'll be watching a movie on your Apple Cinema Projector streaming from your iVid (you know, the one with the 4" oLED display and 200GB) which is seated in the convenient built-in adapter. You'll get a gIM on your cellphone asking if you want to go to Florida for Spring Break, so you browse over to gTravel to check on hotels, rental cars, and flights, check gWeather for the typical climate that week, get driving directions with gMaps to get to all the beaches. Then you gIM your friend back to tell them it's all set!
Remember how Gates predicted "Nobody will ever need more than 640k RAM?" The problem that Microsoft execs is their failure to foresee innovations. Their usual MO is to blast the latest trend, product, or service while they can scrape together an imitation of their own. Then they claim that they "made it right" and bully out the competition.
The MS program doesn't actually count the number of FILES it detects as spyware, but the number of SIGNATURES it detects. This means that one file can result in several detections. Ad-Aware does the same thing. To me the biggest advantage of the MS products is that, for now, it is free and has a resident program to deny access to malicious code. However, it seems like the stuff it detects is the same stuff that SpyBot's TeaTimer stops. I am not impressed with how far along the software is considering the time, because it is built on a well-established program. Just look in the task manager and you can see that they didn't bother to change the file name.
Most of the suggestions mentioned here are some form of "lock down the PC." That is a very good solution, but only if you're using XP or 2000. We have about 300 PCs running 98se and they are most of our problem. We have to do this becuase some of our apps don't run properly (or at all) on XP. In fact, we've got one app that runs only on OS/2 Warp! No spyware on that one.
To further complicate the situation, some of our apps are web interface apps with ActiveX controls which require IE to run. Therefore we can't just run firefox or something.
If we just reimaged the PCs every night, we'd hear a hellacious uproar from people who have things saved on their local machines. You can't change several years of corporate culture overnight. Also, think of the people who don't know what a folder or directory is. They don't know the difference between a network drive and their local drive.
There are quite a few solutions that would work after a year or more of re-education, redeployment, restructuring, etc. but this is not an option for us right now. What we REALLY need is a piece of software that runs the way Symantec AntiVirus Corporate does: allowing us to push updates on a regular basis from an internal server, scan silently, report back to the central server any problems found, block install attempts, etc. Right now nothing we have found will reliably remove and prevent spyware/adware. Even Ad-Aware and SpyBot (the two we most commonly use) do not remove all of the popups, not even right after the new definitions have been released. There is a HUGE market for someone to step up and take care of this kind of thing, but nobody seems to be able or willing to do it.
Last time I checked, Microsoft wasn't the only non-Free Softwaresoftware maker. Many programs have only a limited selection of options, not just Microsoft stuff. Actually, for tweakers, Microsoft usually has more user-changable options than most other software out there.
If you want to tout news clippings (in the sports section?), number of movies, and number of books as proof that something is true, let's see...Star Wars has at least 6 movies, countless books, and more newspaper coverage than a paper maché donkey. That doesn't make it any more tangible than the facts in Michael Moore's movies. No, I haven't seen the movie. I watched part of Bowling for Columbine and was so pissed off at the guy for distorting the facts and making up lies(the 2nd ammendment caused 9/11? video games caused the Columbine shootings?) that I couldn't watch any more. No actually it made me want to go out and buy all of Ted Nugent's albums, Charlton Heston's movies, and several guns just to say F you to the guy.
I don't really know why this is a story on Slashdot, but there have been other articles which had nothing to do with their tagline (News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters) which I found interesting. I'm not going to cry foul now just because I don't like the movie. If anybody goes and sees the thing, just remember that Moore is a guy with an axe to grind and that this is NOT a documentary. It is an editorial. The man has said it himself. Please keep an open mind and remember that for each half-fact he presents there is another half that he leaves out.
weren't there some cases where the cell phone batteries catch fire themselves? I think i remember reading about that here, but I don't have the time to search for the link.
At any rate, our psych class did a project last semester about the crappy warning labels and changing things around to make the hidden dangers more apparent. The industry really needs to do a better job with designing and placing them. Most of the warnings mention not to use cell phones, but it's really just a CYA maneuver.
it would be cool if you could pay for your car online if a meeting runs long or something. other than that, this seems like more of a waste of money and raises the risk of them getting stolen. stealing the old fashioned ones is cool, but stealing a bunch of portable solar computers would be bad-ass!
www.georgia-navigator.com is a great way to find out problems along Georgia's roads.
Retrofitting all cars with GPS navigation, even if it were free, wouldn't clear up traffic troubles, it would just clog up every alternate route.
Can I claim to be the originator of spam e-mail? Which way to the patent office?