[ubuntu-uk] Imagine if Linux become massively popular?

[Liam Proven]

On 13 June 2013 15:02, Tony Arnold <tony.arnold at manchester.ac.uk> wrote:
> OS X can be compromised.

*All* operating systems can be compromised.

> Doesn't really matter whether it's technically
> a virus or a trojan

Yes it does. It matters very very much indeed. This too is a red herring.

On Windows, merely looking at an email, or opening a saved email
attachment, is enough to get a machine 0wned. This cannot be prevented
any more; HTML rendering is embedded into the core of the OS. You
could completely remove IE from Windows 98 & this was demonstrated in
court, when MS was being prosecuted for illegal restraint of trade, to
show that MS' claim that IE was an integral part of Windows was a lie.

MS got off scott-free.

It is no longer the case.

Viruses infect. You don't need to do anything, enter any passwords; a
machine, sitting on a network, not logged in, no user apps running,
can be infected by a suitably clever virus. A machine can be infected
by a virus just by being turned on with infected media in its drives,
or attached to its ports.

Trojans have to be installed by the user. They can't get in on their
own. You have to trick the user into saying yes, and in most cases,
into entering their password.

It's a whole world of difference.

-- 
Liam Proven • Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile
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