“Don’t connect that new PC to the Internet before taking security precautions, researchers at the Internet Storm Center warned Tuesday,” Matt Loney and Robert Lemos write for CNET News. “According to the researchers, an unpatched Windows PC connected to the Internet will last for only about 20 minutes before it’s compromised by malware, on average. That figure is down from around 40 minutes, the group’s estimate in 2003.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: For our Windows-only friends, information about smoothly adding a Mac OS X machine to your computing arsenal can be found here.
At least they are improving.
20 minutes… is there anything we can do to bring it down to 10 minutes? Second thoughts, Micro$oft seem to be doing a pretty good job of it by themselves.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />
20 minutes ! That’s shocking.
I’m on 24×7 with just starndard OS-X firewall settings and never had a problem.
Glad I persuaded a friend to get an eMac instead of a Dell.
The funny thing is you have to connect to the internet and spend 20 minutes downloading patches and updates
20 minutes. There is no way you can update Anti Virus software and patch XP in 20 minutes I don’t care how fast your broadband claims to be. I replace my Windows laptop every 2 years and I won’t be leaving the store with the next one until they have patched XP and upgraded Norton for me. They won’t get the sale if they think they are going to charge me. It took 6 hours to do it myself with my last purchase. I caught 3 different viruses while upgrading and had to download the virus cures on my Mac.
I use XP to run a piece of industry standard software with a USB hardware dongle anti-copy device that must be attached and cannot be recognized by VPC. I also watch DVD’s, send email and listen to iTunes on it. For everything else I use a Mac.
Al wrote: “had to download the virus cures on my Mac”
Forget the “switcher” commercial…
Dear Wintel users. In order for you to safely surf the internet, we recommend the following boot up procedure. When starting up a Wintel computer, first download the latest patch for Windows on Mac then patch Windows before going online.
Sounds like the old DEC-20, which used a PDP to start booting up the mainframe.
We’ve been on Mac OS/x since March of 2002.
Not one virus, not incident of data loss, not one minute of time lost to computer problems on or off the net.
Thank you Apple.
This highlights how Apple needs to do a better job of advertising. People who are buying their first computer, or are technophobic do not know how and/or do not want to deal with setting up security protection. Yet, the vast majority obviously buy PCs, because either they don’t know about the Mac or are led to believe the market share reflects more than it does.
Apple should make an ad about exactly this. Done effectively, this could bring in a lot of new users.
People who are buying their first computer, or are technophobic do not know how and/or do not want to deal with setting up security protection.
Running Windows, it’s insecurity through obsecurity for them.
From the article:
“Speaking recently at the Microsoft TechEd developer conference in Amsterdam, Microsoft security consultant Fred Baumhardt said the day is likely to come when a virus or worm brings down everything.
“Nobody will have time to detect it,” he said. “Nobody will have time to issue patches or virus definitions and get them out there. This shows that patch management is not the be-all and end-all.””
Wll maybe Mr. Security Consultant, you should advise your company not to release a see-thru operating system.
I have seen it happen in 5 minutes after setup.
Hey guys, come on. Take it easy.
They’ll get it right. Eventually.
Probably by 2026. Or 2028. 2030 at the latest.
My boss’ home computer hadn’t been used for months because he clicked on something he shouldn’t have, which filled the machine with various spyware, redirectors, and other nasty shit.
I had tried cleaning the thing off, but the machine needed a start-from-the-beginning reformatting. But he lost his install CD.
We’ve had enough problems with the office PCs that it was somewhat worth it to buy a full XP home install cd, so we did. I wiped the machine, installed XP, got the DSL hooked up and passwords plugged in–and in less than a minute, while IE was still loading so I could pick up Firefox, popup spam had appeared.
Simply amazing.
[and in less than a minute, while IE was still loading so I could pick up Firefox, popup spam had appeared.]
Wow! WinPCs are fast.
My mate bought a new wndows compac pc and it had a virus on the hard drive BEFORE he connected it to the internet!
They must have had a virus on the hard drive from the factory!!
Ive said it before and I will say it again folks!…
WHY O WHY DO PEOPLE PUT UP WITH THIS CRAP???
Do people enjoy suffering or something??
For gods sake – get a mac and have worry free computing!!!
I’ve had to download the latest drivers for a ThinkPad on my PowerBook and burn them to CD in order to get the darn PC up and running. Pathetic.
I’ve had to download the latest drivers for a ThinkPad on my PowerBook and burn them to CD in order to get the darn PC up and running. Pathetic.
The sad fact is, Windoze users assume all computers must have this problem. After all, over 90% of the market wouldn’t be using something a million times less secure than an OS with less than 10% of the market, would they? A seemingly reasonable assumption, but wrong of course.
Apple needs to promote this LIKE HELL – or alternatively, like they’re promoting the iPod!
Lee
P.S. OS 9 is even safer than X. Been using it on the net for years without any sort of firewall or anti-virus software whatsoever, and I haven’t had a single problem.
<h1>In your free time, check out the sites about free texas holdem poker online free texas holdem poker online http://www.free-texas-holdem-poker-online-win.info/ <br/> texas holdem play poker free texas holdem play poker free http://www.texas-holdem-play-poker-free-win.info/ <br/> phentermine online pharmacy forums phentermine online pharmacy forums http://www.phentermine-online-pharmacy-forums-top-deals.info/ <br/> free slot machine games free slot machine games http://www.free-slot-machine-games-gambling-4u.info/ <br/> fedex shipping phentermine fedex shipping phentermine http://www.fedex-shipping-phentermine-pharmacy-2003.info/ <br/> phentermine am delivery cod phentermine am delivery cod http://www.phentermine-am-delivery-cod-leading-pharmacy.info/ <br/> fda approved phentermine fda approved phentermine http://www.fda-approved-phentermine-pharmacy-2003.info/ <br/> tezas holdem tezas holdem http://www.tezas-holdem-4u.info/ <br/> buy phentermine cheap phetermine buy phentermine cheap phetermine http://www.buy-phentermine-cheap-phetermine-pharmacy-2003.info/ <br/>… Thanks!!! </h1>