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Cyber attack spreads worldwide

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n_hologram
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Re: Cyber attack spreads worldwide

#41 Post by n_hologram »

ruffwoof wrote: Perhaps that's why the likes of Puppy Linux desktop users who run everything as root, whilst oft said to be mad for doing so, are less prone to damage/attack...

I guess if you treat your PC/laptop as being little different to a public PC and take appropriate measures that can be safer than thinking your PC is isolated/safe and being more blasé about security. Of the two the one who thinks they're safe is more inclined to the greater negative side.
Wouldn't that be akin to removing the doors in your house and becoming a self-taught Navy SEAL because someone might break in anyway?
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Re: Cyber attack spreads worldwide

#42 Post by Hallvor »

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Re: Cyber attack spreads worldwide

#43 Post by stevepusser »

I guess the NSA really didn't have any secret backdoors built into Windows with Redmond's collusion, despite all the rumors.

Maybe this will quiet down the US government's continual cries to have these backdoors in all software, but I doubt it--many of our representative's heads seem dehyrated-rock-on-Venus dense. If a backdoor exists, it will be found and used for nefarious purposes; history shows that over and over again.
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Re: Cyber attack spreads worldwide

#44 Post by ruffwoof »

n_hologram wrote:
ruffwoof wrote: Perhaps that's why the likes of Puppy Linux desktop users who run everything as root, whilst oft said to be mad for doing so, are less prone to damage/attack...

I guess if you treat your PC/laptop as being little different to a public PC and take appropriate measures that can be safer than thinking your PC is isolated/safe and being more blasé about security. Of the two the one who thinks they're safe is more inclined to the greater negative side.
Wouldn't that be akin to removing the doors in your house and becoming a self-taught Navy SEAL because someone might break in anyway?
Do you use a restricted user or sandbox for all web/external activity? If say your browser is breached and enables access to your data files at the same access level as what you invoked the browser with, how secure would your data/system be? One mindset accepts that risk and takes protective measures. The other mindset assumes safety where safety is far from assured.

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Re: Cyber attack spreads worldwide

#45 Post by n_hologram »

ruffwoof wrote:One mindset accepts that risk and takes protective measures. The other mindset assumes safety where safety is far from assured.
I'm fairly certain this doesn't support the idea of running everything as root.
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Re: Cyber attack spreads worldwide

#46 Post by edbarx »

It is somewhat difficult to avoid the temptation to 'blame' Windows users for using their OS of preference. However, certain circumstances exist which force computer users to use it even though they may prefer something else. Students and users of specialised devices that connect to a computer, cannot always enjoy the freedom of software and OS choice. I can mention my recent experience when I purchased a USB oscilloscope that I couldn't use under Linux. Kernel developers are still unwilling to allow Windows drivers, notwithstanding they know a portion of hardware manufacturers, do not want to write open drivers or publish enough technical data. It seems kernel developers do not want to admit the hard reality, that hardware manufacturers are too powerful to be forced to do what they disagree with.

Someone may mention the ndiswrapper project which aims to use Windows XP Wifi drivers under Linux. Ndiswrapper does not provide support for all kinds of devices. My impression is, ndiswrapper is rather old software that was written when Linux Wifi drivers were difficult to find, but that is only my subjective impression.

EDIT: Edited for grammatical errors.
Last edited by edbarx on 2017-05-17 12:07, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Cyber attack spreads worldwide

#47 Post by Bulkley »

wizard10000 wrote:edit: Actually you'r'e both kinda correct. DOS was demoted *after* the shell loaded but was still required to boot. If you disable launching the shell what you're left with is DOS :wink:
However it worked, Windows 95 is what drove me to Linux. I was one of those users who played DOS, made my own config.sys, etc. The Win95 shell was an annoyance I never got over.

Back to the theme of this thread, Microsoft might like to blame the NSA and others but the reality is that most Windows installations are terribly insecure and that's a big problem for Microsoft. Windows can be toughened up but generally isn't.

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Re: Cyber attack spreads worldwide

#48 Post by phenest »

Bulkley wrote:Microsoft might like to blame the NSA and others but the reality is that most Windows installations are terribly insecure
There does seem to be some to and fro between NSA and MS and possibly nations that have been privy to the source code. It seems that, if the NSA found a vulnerability, they didn't tell MS unless it was a big problem for them, so the NSA only created patches for themselves. What's the point of all these extra eyeballs, if they're not willing to share with MS?
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Re: Cyber attack spreads worldwide

#49 Post by Job »

I still believe that Linux is more secure than windows.
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ruffwoof
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Re: Cyber attack spreads worldwide

#50 Post by ruffwoof »

n_hologram wrote:
ruffwoof wrote:One mindset accepts that risk and takes protective measures. The other mindset assumes safety where safety is far from assured.
I'm fairly certain this doesn't support the idea of running everything as root.
Puppy ... that runs everything as root (but can be set to run the likes of browsers etc as a restricted user) ...
Puppy boots in less than a minute, even in old PCs, and it does not require antivirus software. Administering Puppy is quick and minimal. With Puppy, you just have to take care of your data, which you can easily save to USB flash
It boots a pure read only system contained within a single compressed file (squashed filesystem) and runs everything in ram. If that file is loaded from a readonly CD/DVD (boot disc) and even if you were running a very old browser and as root to go to your bank web site (nowhere else beforehand) ... then that's pretty secure. Or if you booted and went to a virus riddled web site, your data remains out of harms way.

"If you are using the internet for a commercial transaction, use a Linux boot up disk - such as Ubuntu or some of the other flavours. Puppylinux is a nice small distribution that boots up fairly quickly.

"It gives you an operating system which is perfectly clean and operates only in the memory of the computer and is a perfectly safe way of doing internet banking," van der Graaf said.

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Re: Cyber attack spreads worldwide

#51 Post by n_hologram »

ruffwoof wrote:
n_hologram wrote:
ruffwoof wrote:One mindset accepts that risk and takes protective measures. The other mindset assumes safety where safety is far from assured.
I'm fairly certain this doesn't support the idea of running everything as root.
Puppy ... that runs everything as root (but can be set to run the likes of browsers etc as a restricted user) ...
Puppy boots in less than a minute, even in old PCs, and it does not require antivirus software. Administering Puppy is quick and minimal. With Puppy, you just have to take care of your data, which you can easily save to USB flash
It boots a pure read only system contained within a single compressed file (squashed filesystem) and runs everything in ram. If that file is loaded from a readonly CD/DVD (boot disc) and even if you were running a very old browser and as root to go to your bank web site (nowhere else beforehand) ... then that's pretty secure. Or if you booted and went to a virus riddled web site, your data remains out of harms way.

"If you are using the internet for a commercial transaction, use a Linux boot up disk - such as Ubuntu or some of the other flavours. Puppylinux is a nice small distribution that boots up fairly quickly.

"It gives you an operating system which is perfectly clean and operates only in the memory of the computer and is a perfectly safe way of doing internet banking," van der Graaf said.
If your argument comes down to "a read-only filesystem is more secure than a rw one," I'll bias towards your side. However, I speculate the logistics of running this type of system full-time, especially on an environment like a server.
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Re: Cyber attack spreads worldwide

#52 Post by ruffwoof »

n_hologram wrote:If your argument comes down to "a read-only filesystem is more secure than a rw one," I'll bias towards your side. However, I speculate the logistics of running this type of system full-time, especially on an environment like a server.
Pristine factory fresh installation, configured and cast to a read only device (DVD) and any subsequent reboot has the system back to pristine again. However I only know of cases of relatively small clusters/servers using Puppy Linux. The main focus is then the data protection/backup policies (together with test system preparation of any system updates (next read-only system DVD release)).

The limitation factor is primarily memory capacity, however swap can assist there.

Penetration, shutdown, purge swap, reboot ... pristine again. Contrast that with having to identify and isolate the problem.

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Re: Cyber attack spreads worldwide

#53 Post by alan stone »

Job wrote:I still believe that Linux is more secure than windows.
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Re: Cyber attack spreads worldwide

#54 Post by alan stone »

Job wrote:I still believe that Linux is more secure than windows.
Security is a process, not a product. - Bruce Schneier

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Re: Cyber attack spreads worldwide

#55 Post by bester69 »

alan stone wrote:
Job wrote:I still believe that Linux is more secure than windows.
Security is a process, not a product. - Bruce Schneier
Its both things, id say

I havent heard in life of anyone getting inffected in Android Systems (linux system), and there hundred of millons of users using Android, and installing thousands of differents apps in that system. I go to google news, and you cant find anything about security infecctions in android.

I always said linux is inmune to virus and malware, and for what i've seen the last five years, this is like that in real life.
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Re: Cyber attack spreads worldwide

#56 Post by /tmp »

Lysander wrote:
VentGrey wrote:Apparently Linux systems are vulnerable too, in my compulsive paranoia I disabled root acc and set all my firewalls to high, and im scanning every 2 hours, I really don't want some ransomware here :shock:
Yes, on another forum one user said they were running Mint and they still got it, I don't know if that's true though. EDIT: Apparently it's not true, it was only written for Windows.
Fun fact: the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart runs all of their systems off of XP to this day. "Too big to fail" doesn't work when you build your empire on dangerously insecure software.
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Re: Cyber attack spreads worldwide

#57 Post by sunrat »

bester69 wrote:I havent heard in life of anyone getting inffected in Android Systems (linux system), and there hundred of millons of users using Android, and installing thousands of differents apps in that system. I go to google news, and you cant find anything about security infecctions in android.
Haha, Google News would be the last place to search for Android vulnerabilities. :D
http://thehackernews.com/2017/04/androi ... lware.html
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Re: Cyber attack spreads worldwide

#58 Post by alan stone »

bester69 wrote:I go to google news, and you cant find anything about security infecctions in android.
Fascinating.

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Re: Cyber attack spreads worldwide

#59 Post by Lysander »

Another wave. I'm hearing of quite a few large firms that have been affected here in the UK.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06 ... r-attack1/

Of course it would help if companies didn't do things like pay nearly $1m dollars in ransomware demands.

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Re: Cyber attack spreads worldwide

#60 Post by Wheelerof4te »

I wonder what's and who's behind these attacks? It's like someone is preparing for large-scale cyber war. Doesn't help that some Intel's Skylake and Kaby Lake chips have been compromised recently which would allow for data corruption/deletion. Coincidence?

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