Posts Tagged ‘malware’
The XP Patch Nightmare: Why We Should Move On
October 25, 2001 – A Microsoft operating system was released as the Internet revolution entered the everyman’s home. Only one year after the absolute fiasco known as Windows ME (in a time before Vista was known as possibly the worst operating system of all time), Windows XP was released, and with it came hopes of a new stable Windows OS. Combining the new technologies of ME with the stability of Windows 2000, XP became the world’s number one OS, and sits on that throne to this day. It heralded the modern internet era, and until recently was the OS of choice for OEMs.
Now, we can finally see what a horrible, horrible mistake keeping it alive was. Since the appearance of a 17-year old DOS exploit, followed by an update that has created countless BSODs and endless reboots, Windows XP looks unlikely to be able to weather the coming years. Microsoft believes they have discovered the primary cause of the current maladies:
“In our continuing investigation in to the restart issues related to MS10-015 that a limited number of customers are experiencing, we have determined that malware on the system can cause the behavior. We are not yet ruling out other potential causes at this time and are still investigating.” (emphasis added)
People attacked Windows Vista for performance flaws and pricing, but at least Microsoft began to clean up its act regarding internet security with Internet Explorer 7 and the improved Windows Firewall. User Account Control, a feature Unix systems have had for quite a while, was a step in the right direction (despite its dreadful implementation). And Windows 7 finally comes with performance improvements and most modern hardware is capable of handling it.
The only market that really had any justification in using XP was netbooks, but even they have moved on to Windows 7 Starter Edition. While XP may have extended support till 2014, users should realize that they need to upgrade far before that.
There are essentially three routes. If you have anything with higher performance than a netbook, it is safe to move on to Windows 7. “Vista-capable” PCs should not still have Windows XP on them. It is an insult to their hardware, and these recent episodes have shown that it is no longer safe.
If for some reason you are still using a 800 MHz Celeron with 128 MB RAM, then it is either time to get a new computer (anything from any brand with any operating system circa 2010) or to install Linux. For the majority of users, the latter seems like too difficult of an option, but Ubuntu is a usable and user-friendly introduction to Linux.
As for netbooks, which is the only platform where new machines still have this abomination, please get Windows 7 or Linux or even a Hackintosh. Microsoft has directions for those of you who don’t know how to set up an ISO to install from a USB. And while I am sure there will be many of those hesitant to move forward from XP, I beseech you: at least take this as a wake up call.
Via Engadget.
Snow Leopard ships with old version of Flash - great for hackers, not so much for the rest of us
[Via Daily Tech]
Read the entire post on Engadget
Apple’s Snow Leopard Has a Malware Checker, but Functionality Is In Question
Whether you consider Apple notorious or glorious for having a relative lack of viruses and other malicious content available to ruin your machines, it looks like Apple has gone and done a little forward thinking in their ever-expanding market share, and officially included a virus checker with their upcoming release, Snow Leopard. But, how effective is it?
It’s debatable if Apple (and Steve Jobs, incidentally) is admitting or suggesting that Apple is just as capable of receiving malicious content as Microsoft’s Windows, and one that we’re sure will be going on for quite some time. Either way, Apple’s erected the first wall in defending against it, but as it turns out, that wall might be made of sticks, rather than stone. The included scanner can only detect two Trojan horses apparently, and both of them are quite old. “RSPlug.a” was first seen back in October 2007, and “lservice” which first came about in January. The shocking part is that the Snow Leopard anti-virus checker identifies these two Trojans as being brand new. In 2007, “RSPlug.a” made it to the news because it changed a machine’s DSN (Domain Name System) settings, and redirected users to false sites. And lservice made its appearance on pirated copies of iWork ‘09, Apple’s suite of productivity software. The first Trojan is old enough that it is hardly ever seen in the wild anymore.
Of course, due to software updates, Apple will be able to update the virus checker whenever they see fit, through their Software Update Service. Apple hasn’t confirmed this to be a possibility, or an option, and there isn’t any word on what this could cost. If it costs something at all, it would be quite the slap in the face to the consumer. Keeping your users safe, especially by a company that strives for usability and user experience, would be paramount to keeping Apple’s squeaky-clean image amongst computer users.
[via TG Daily]
Read the entire post on SlashGear
Snow Leopard packing antivirus software?
If the online chatter is to be believed, Apple’s very soon to be released Snow Leopard has in its code new protection for fighting malware. According to the picture above corroborated by other online reports, a DMG downloaded by Safari was checked by the OS and found to contain the “RSPlug.A” Trojan. The system promptly suggests you eject the disk image to avoid damage. Should Apple really be treading down this path, it begs the question of how often and how comprehensive / aggressive the company will be updating its antivirus logs. If nothing else, it’s a certainly a notable symbolic gesture that the one-time underdog might be gaining enough market share to catch the attention of the darker side of the internet — and all of a sudden, David Puddy isn’t looking nearly as bad.
Read the entire post on Engadget
