Never Hacked or Infected--Yet (Was: Re: End of life for FC12?)

Patrick Bartek bartek047 at yahoo.com
Fri Nov 12 17:41:17 UTC 2010


--- On Thu, 11/11/10, James Mckenzie <jjmckenzie51 at earthlink.net> wrote:


> Tim <ignored_mailbox at yahoo.com.au>
> >
> >On Wed, 2010-11-10 at 10:36 -0800, Patrick Bartek
> wrote:
> >> Lack of the usual indicators, that is, no odd
> application behavior,
> >> no unusual slow-downs, no excessive CPU usage, no
> excessive or
> >> abnormal net (or hard drive) activity, no crashes
> or freezes, no
> >> strange log reports, no reports from friends about
> receiving spam
> >> e-mails from me that I never sent, etc.
> >>  
> >> I've spent enough time fixing friends' infected
> Windows machines that
> >> I've gotten a "feel" for when something is
> amiss.  It's not a
> >> definitive feeling, just an indicator to start
> checking for something
> >> wrong.
> >
> >I've seen comments made that the usual things you
> notice with a hacked
> >Windows installation (where it's horribly sluggish and
> unstable), really
> >only apply to Windows.  Not to mention that an
> un-hacked, but otherwise
> >crappily maintained, Windows box behaves just the
> same.
> >
> Tim, Patrick, et. al.:
> 
> These are all valid points.  I've said that Fedora is
> 'beta' software in the past.  Every effort is made by

I would never consider using Fedora on a system where security was paramount.  That's why I only use it on my home desktop systems.

> [big snip]
> 
> Lastly, there are two types of people in the security
> realm:
> 1.  Those who have not been breached and will. 
> Those people tend to say "I'm lucky and I'm not going to
> improve my security posture."  This includes malware
> infections (viruses, spyware and worms.)
> 2.  Those have been breached and now look like an
> armoured tank.  I'm the latter.  I have anti-virus
> software on my MacIntosh (there is ONE known in the wild
> virus/worm for the MacOSX platform), anti-spyware on my
> browser and other items (firewalls/ipfilters).  I was
> struck by the MonkeyB worm from a supposedly active system
> with anti-virus installed (but disabled.)  Virus
> infections can and do come from everywhere.

There is a third type who falls between 1 and 2, (1.666 ;-)). He knows there's a devil, but still takes a reasonable, not excessive or paranoid, security approach based on what needs to be secured, its value, and the extint of the exposure.  I fall in that group.

For the paranoid treatment of security, this was worthwhile.  It gave me a headache. ;-).  This is Revision 4.  September 2010.

   http://www.nsa.gov/ia/_files/os/redhat/rhel5-guide-i731.pdf

B


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